This fourth and final review into the Collins Class submarine sustainment program argues that submarine maintenance and availability has significantly improved.

Summary:

This report revisits the sustainment environment 15 months on from our November 2012 Report to gauge progress along the transformation path.

Previous phases of the Study were necessarily focused on the past much more than the future. The approach taken in this report is more forward-looking. It recognises that the sustainment business has embarked on a major transformation program towards benchmark performance as recommended in the Study, and that positive results have been achieved across the Enterprise. This report therefore investigates recent and projected future performance to make an assessment against the following themes:

i. Current Collins Class sustainment performance

ii. Likely trajectory towards benchmark performance

iii. Prospects for making the transformation enduring.

The review has also assessed progress against the 25 recommendations which we consider a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve and then sustain benchmark performance. The Enterprise has developed a Transformation Plan to address the entirety of changes that support the transformation, including many ‘tactical-level’ but nevertheless important initiatives. This review has considered the 25 recommendations and the underlying factors that contribute to good practice sustainment and the results achieved so far, but it has not considered each Transformation Plan tactical initiative in detail.