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Deploy the Decoy

Building on the Group’s expertise in the defence sector, A.G. Coombs has taken a key role in the delivery of the new $23.9 million Nulka assembly and maintenance facility at the Defence Establishment Orchard Hills in Western Sydney.

Image: © COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE

Nulka – “be quick”

Prior to the 1980s, active off-board decoy systems to protect warships from a new generation of missiles were a test concept championed by Defence scientists yet to convince most of the world’s skeptical military of their viability.

Initiated in Australia by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), successful trials of the variable-thrust, solidpropellant rocket-motor technology had shown that such a decoy could hover in controlled flight.

But it wasn’t until the sinking of British destroyer HMS Sheffield by a sea-skimming anti-ship missile in 1982 during the Falklands War that the concept was fully embraced by military leaders. This led to a collaborative engineering partnership being formed between Australia and the US to further develop the technology that would come to be known as Nulka.

An Australian indigenous word meaning “be quick”, Nulka has since become one of Australia’s largest and most successful defence exports.

Considered the most sophisticated soft-kill defence system against anti-ship missiles, thousands of Nulka decoys have been manufactured and fitted to more than 150 Australian, United States and Canadian warships.

The technologies behind the success of Nulka include advanced flight vehicle guidance and control techniques, and sophisticated radio frequency electronics.

Fully autonomous after launch, the decoy can fly a pre-programmed flight path to entice anti-ship missiles away from the ship, with its unique all-weather design allowing it to hover with a high degree of precision no matter the conditions.

Orchard Hills

Assembly and production of the Nulka active missile decoy has remained under the auspice of BAE Systems Australia since a licence agreement was signed between the Department of Defence and AWA Defence Industries (now BAE Systems Australia) in 1994.

A recent multi-million dollar contract with the Australian Government has continued this arrangement – ensuring the company continues to produce the system locally, strengthening Australia’s sovereign technical expertise and the skills base that supports it.

The agreement has also led to the development of a dedicated Nulka assembly and maintenance facility at the Defence Establishment Orchards Hills (DEOH) in western Sydney.

This facility will replace an aging existing, facility at Mulwala on the New South Wales/Victorian border.

Currently under construction by indigenous construction company National Aboriginal Construction Partners (NACP), the new facility at Orchard Hills will support the acquisition of an enhanced Nulka decoy variant for which additional production and maintenance capacity is required.

A.G. Coombs has been engaged by NCAP under a construct-only contract to deliver a mature mechanical services design by engineering consultant, AECOM. The traditional build includes the installation and commissioning of an air-cooled system to serve a number of spaces within the assembly and maintenance buildings.

A.G. Coombs is also leading the building information modelling (BIM) and coordination process on the project, with all services installed and commissioned to strict Defence standards.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

History repeats

It is serendipitous that A.G. Coombs would become involved in a project supporting the continued production of Nulka given its own Bryon Price, Strategic Development Director for the Group, cut his engineering “teeth” on the emerging technology in the early-1980s.

Working at the time, as a graduate engineer under the Defence Science and Technology Organisation’s (DSTO) lead scientists and engineers on Project Winnin – the early design and experimental work that would be the precursor to Nulka.

He says, “It’s great to look back knowing I had some small part to play in what has become an Australian success story.”