The Australian Government has approved an upgrade of all ANZAC class frigates to the full anti-ship missile defense standard.

Saab Systems will work with the Defense Material Organization and BAE Systems for systems integration of a further seven naval combat systems.

The Royal Australian Navy will receive the upgrade of the ANZAC class frigate comprising an enhanced 9LV combat management system, phased array radar and missile director, infrared sensors and an advanced navigation radar system.

Saab, teamed with BAE Systems and CEA Technologies, created the latest variant of the 9LV combat management system (CMS) for HMAS PERTH earlier this year. The upgrade entailed an extensively redesigned operations room to give the ship unprecedented situational awareness and weapon systems coordination. The highly modernized ship has been engaged in radar, missile and combat system trials for much of 2011 which have validated the entire combat system.

Australian Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said, “The tests proved that the new system can defend the ship from modern cruise missile attack.”

The operations room has been reorganized to enhance the capability of the ship’s command team. Newly-designed consoles come with 30 inch wide screen displays and 42 inch large screen displays show operational command information across the room. The CMS integrates the entire combat system through a dual redundant Gigabit optical fiber LAN.

Chairman of Saab Technologies Australia, Ms Gunilla Fransson said, “The modernization of the entire ANZAC class is testimony to the future-proof 9LV combat management system and Saab’s combat system engineering capability in Australia.”

“This fully integrated combat system is now one of the most modern CMS in the world. It gives the ANZAC ships a fully flexible capability to utilize all its weapons, sensors and countermeasures simultaneously.”