Thales Australia wins $2 billion RMP contract

Thales Australia has won the $2 billion Regional Maintenance Provider (RMP) contract for the new Regional Maintenance Centre East (RMC-E) at Defence’s Sydney based Garden Island Precinct.

The contract will create up to 120 direct defence industry jobs and around 800 jobs in the broader industrial ship repair workforce. It will ensure Australia has the sovereign industrial base to maintain and sustain Australia’s naval fleet into the future.

The seven-year contract includes incentives to ensure local and regional small and medium businesses are given a fair opportunity to compete for work.

“I’m focussed on making it easier for local industry to partner with Defence, and this partnership with Thales Australia will help to do that,” said Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy. The other RMCs are: RMC North East in Cairns; RMC North in Darwin; and RMC West at Fleet Base West near Fremantle.

The new RMC-E will support the sustainment of Navy’s Canberra-class Landing Helicopter Docks, Hobart-class DDGs and the Landing Ship Dock HMAS Choules.

It is a part of a new national approach to sustainment, establishing a consolidated network of maintenance centres around Australia, to support continuous naval shipbuilding and respond to a more challenging strategic environment.