Questions raised over lucrative $4.3b northern border surveillance contract awarded to Metrea

Officials have been quizzed about a $4.3 billion contract for maritime surveillance north of Australia awarded to a US defence contractor involved in a deadly crash in the Philippines last year.

Last week the Australian Border Force (ABF) confirmed it had chosen Metrea for the lucrative deal to provide “short and long-range aerial surveillance with enhanced national coverage, operating 24/7, year-round”.

Metrea, which until recently appeared to have no employees in Australia, said its successful proposal would “deliver enhanced surveillance capability in support of the critical task of safeguarding Australia’s borders”.

The company added that it was “committed to building on its existing presence in Australia, and is advancing plans to scale its operations to enable sustained, sovereign delivery”.

Sources have told The Nightly that Metrea had subcontracted another company, SkyTraders, as part of their tender bid, in part to satisfy the Civil Aviation Safety Authority obligations.

Last October the ABF awarded SkyTraders a separate $190 million contract as it continued to assess the much larger multi-billion-dollar tender for aerial surveillance of Australia’s borders.

On Thursday, the existing SkyTraders contract was also subjected to scrutiny during a senate estimates hearing, with ABF officials indicating under questioning that it was running behind schedule.

According to the ABF, the new $4.3b surveillance deal will involve “11 fully crewed, technologically advanced aircraft” which are understood to be the Beechcraft King Air 350 and the much larger long-range Global 65000 produced by Bombardier Defence.

During Thursday’s committee hearing the ABF was questioned about concerns the company would not have sufficient aircraft ready to conduct aerial surveillance of Australia’s northern approaches when the work was due to begin in 2028.

“I would say that there are absolutely stages where we will be monitoring to make sure that they are ready to transition the capability,” Deputy ABF Commissioner Jarrod Howard said.

“And we will be working very closely both with Metrea as the future contractor and with Leidos as the current contractor to sort of work through what that transition period looks like.”

Shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam told the committee that when Metrea had first lodged its tender for the surveillance contract its primary place of business was registered to a residential Toorak address and its sole director was a real estate agent.

“I was very confident that Metrea could deliver on the services that was required in having considered all of the things under the Commonwealth procurement rules that I’m required to consider,” Commissioner Howard responded.

Industry sources have claimed that the tender provided by Matrea was far more expensive than other options assessed by the Department of Home Affairs.

Metrea recently advertised for a new position based at RAAF base Learmonth in northern WA to “coordinate and execute rapid procurement of aircraft parts” and “ensure timely delivery of parts and materials using defence and commercial freight channels”.

RAAF Base Learmonth has not been fully operational since Cyclone Narelle significantly damaged the facility in March this year.

Under further questioning from Greens Senator David Shoebridge, Commissioner Howard was asked why SkyTraders “keeps getting so much of the pie” from the Department of Home Affairs.

“What I can say is that this procurement in which I was involved as the delegate went through the appropriate procurement process that were required to under legislation and SkyTraders was the successful tenderer,” he responded.

Senator Shoebridge then asked whether there was any direct engagement between Home Affairs and the former chief of army, Lieutenant General Kenneth Gillespie, who is now a non-executive director of SkyTraders.

Deputy Commissioner told the committee “that for this particular contract, I was the delegate, I was the decision maker and I had no contact with Mr Gillespie”.

In February last year four people, including a US military service member and three defence contractors, were killed after a light plane registered to Metrea crashed into rice fields in the southern Philippines while conducting intelligence and surveillance.

The company’s safety record was also called into question the previous year when a flap from a KC-135 aircraft operated by Metrea for the US Airforce fell from the sky into a Hawaiian community, landing in a lagoon.