Late and over budget, OneSKY air traffic system gets another reprieve

The troubled OneSKY civil military air traffic management system (CMATS) has had yet another reprieve, with the government deciding to persevere with it after a 'projects of concern' meeting late last week.

OneSKY-CMATS is designed to unite civil and military air traffic control across the country.

The project was conceived after the 2009 national aviation white paper and has been troubled almost from the beginning.

In 2017, it made its debut on the 'projects of concern' list, only to be removed by then-minister Marise Payne in 2019, without consulting the Department of Defence.

In August 2019, the Australian National Audit Office published a scathing report on the project, saying that delays in negotiating tenders had doubled the cost of the project to $4.1 billion and made the project run 10 years late.

The decision to continue the project was made by defence industry minister Pat Conroy, and minister for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government Catherine King.

“There has been significant progress on delivering the remediation plan for the OneSKY-CMATS air traffic management project," Conroy said in a statement.

A new project timetable will be announced in early 2024, along with a contract change proposal.

The summit on Friday also addressed another project of concern, the SEA 1180 Phase 1 – Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) project.

The $3.6 billion replacement of the Armidale and Cape class vessels with a single design will also continue.