Publication:Sea Talk Spring 2004/ANZAC stalwart to cross the Nullarbor
By Sub Lieutenant Rowan Walker
After nearly a decade of delivery of ANZAC ship maintenance training, and support to the crews of the ANZAC NUSHIPs, the Williamstown home of the Training - Unit ANZAC Ship Support Centre (TU-ASSC) will close its doors in December 2004.
The site was originally established by Tenix as the Williamstown Development Site (WDS), with the intended purpose of ensuring that the integration aspects of the ANZAC ship combat and platform systems were addressed prior to installation and testing in the first ANZAC Ship.
To facilitate this process ANZAC ship equipment was essentially 'loaned out' from the build program and assigned to the site thereby giving it the unique potential to also deliver training for ANZAC crews using shipboard fitted equipment.
The completion of the primary integration activities saw the site name change to ANZAC Ship Support Centre before the final name change to TU-ASSC, reflecting the shift in its primary role from integration and testing to the delivery of maintainer training. TU-ASSC, currently located only a short walk from the Tenix facility in Williamstown, Melbourne, operates as an outstation of Training Authority - Logistics (CAPT Bob Richards).
The unit was ideally placed to offer maintenance training for ships' personnel while the frigates were in build and most RAN and RNZN ANZAC sailors have passed through its gates prior to joining their new ships. Further, the unit provides an invaluable naval presence within the Williamstown area and assumes a support role to the crews of the NUSHIPs as they transition through build, trials and delivery.
However, with the ANZAC Ship Project nearing completion the decision was made to consolidate all ANZAC class training, maintenance and logistical support systems near the ships in Western Australia. So TUASSC will begin operating from its new purpose built facility in HMAS Stirling from January 2005.
While TU-ASSC's primary role will remain the delivery of ANZAC Equipment Application Course (EAC) training, it is expected to maintain its secondary role as an integration and test site throughout its life. Most recently the Harpoon project conducted new software integration testing using the sites C2 system.
The recent removal of ANZAC equipment including: the Raytheon AN/SPS-49(8) radar (2DR), Spherion B sonar (HMS), Erickson SG 150 Sea Giraffe Target Indication Radar (TIR) and Cossor Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) from the Williamstown site and its return to the build program necessitated the implementation of alternative forms of training.
So the new facility will use equipment-based maintenance training simulators for a number of Electronic Technician (ET) courses. The first course to be conducted using the innovative simulation environment was the Spherion B Sonar course held at the Williamstown facility in July of this year.
It is anticipated that pilot courses for the four primary systems (HMS); (TIR); (2DR); and (IFF) using the maintenance training simulators will be conducted prior to the move west. The OIC of TU-ASSC, Lieutenant Commander Brian Nitschinsk, is heavily involved with the complex task of relocating the unit (material, equipment and personnel) and is expected to take possession of the new purpose-built facility in Stirling, in November this 2004.
As one era draws to a close in the East, the baton is passed to the new facility in the West to continue to build on the solid foundations built on a decade's experience in delivering excellence in ANZAC maintenance training and support.
