A controversial $4.1 billion consolidation of civilian and military air traffic control systems that is already running at least a decade late and could take 20 years to ultimately deliver is back on the Department of Defence’s Projects of Concern list despite being removed by a previous minister.
Known as project ONESKY, the Labor-initiated effort to create a single Australian air-traffic-management system was previously booted off the troubled projects watch list by former defence minister Marise Payne and later found to be unable to “demonstrate the effectiveness of its regime in managing the recovery of underperforming projects” in a 2019 audit.
OneSKY is intended to replace two outdated air traffic control systems with a single civil-military air traffic management system (known as CMATS), and was scheduled to be operational by July 2023.
That now looks to have blown out to at least 2025.
“The Civil-Military Air Traffic Management System project has been listed as a Project of Concern because of significant schedule, technical and cost challenges,” a statement from Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said.
“The project has seen a two-year delay to forecast Initial and Final Operational Capability in the past two years.
“It is my expectation that this listing brings more high-level attention, resources and energy — from both Defence and our industry partner Thales Australia — to the task of remediating this project,” Conroy said.
The OneSKY project is now shaping up as the project with the longest-running delay, eclipsing even the Australian Taxation Office’s decade-long Change program, which was completed so late that changes to the taxation system threatened to render it obsolete.
It’s still not clear how far the technology initially intended for OneSKY has evolved over two decades, and whether it is still contemporary or will be obsolete on arrival.
What is known is that Australia has an exceptionally safe air traffic and aviation safety record, with no desire to weaken existing safety controls.
Another issue is that as the skies are becoming more crowded, the number of tech personnel with the required tech skills to skills deliver the project has dwindled because of COVID and fierce competition for resources.
A major benefit for OneSKY was supposed to be being able to run take-offs and landings more efficiently and in a greater number of difficult weather scenarios.
Another concern is that Sydney is now in the process of building another airport that will place even more strain on current systems.
Civil aviation controllers have been staunchly opposed to OneSky because of the redundancies generated when the two disparate systems are made into one.
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