British sea lord assures Australian officials troubled warship program ‘stabilising’

by Admin
July 29, 2024

In short:

The British navy chief says he is confident Australia’s controversial anti-submarine warship program will be successful.

The program has risen in cost from $30 to $45 billion despite a revised delivery of six ships rather than nine.

What’s next?

Another $10 billion program for “general class frigates” is currently in search of a shipbuilder, with companies from Japan, Spain, Germany and South Korea competing for the contract.

Britain’s visiting naval chief has declared Australia will eventually operate the world’s best anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigates because a closely linked shipbuilding project in the UK is now “stabilising” after suffering damaging initial setbacks.

The upbeat assessment of Australia’s Hunter-class warship program comes as several nations vying to build the navy’s next fleet of smaller “general purpose frigates” sharpen their sales pitches here as they try to clinch the lucrative defence contract.

Britain’s visiting naval chief has declared Australia will have “great capability” when its future anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigates finally enter service.(Defence/CPOIS Nina Fogliani)

During his only interview while in the country, the British first sea lord told the ABC he was increasingly confident the Royal Navy’s new ASW warships would enter service in the UK towards the end of the decade and predicted they would be “world leading”.

Admiral Ben Key also argued that lessons from the UK’s troubled Type 26 program were already being fed into the early construction of Australia’s future Hunter-class frigates, which are largely based on the British ASW vessel.

“I’m confident that the Type 26 program is stabilising,” ,” Admiral Key said.

“It’s clearly had ups and downs. We shouldn’t be surprised. These are very complicated ships to build, and the first of any class you learn a lot from it.”

In 2018, the Turnbull government announced UK company BAE Systems had beaten rival bids from Spain and Italy for the lucrative project to build up to nine high-tech, anti-submarine warships in Adelaide.

Earlier this year the Albanese government confirmed the ambitious and controversial program had survived a sweeping review of Australia’s naval surface fleet, but only six of the frigates would likely be built.

Analysts have recently argued Australia’s Hunter-class program is likely to cost $45 billion, up from the original forecast of $30 billion, despite the fact the fleet is expected to comprise six warships rather than nine.

“Clearly what we’re learning there is being fed across into the Hunter program to make sure that as much shared benefit can be moved from one program to the other one,” Admiral Key told the ABC.

“Why would we not make sure that the Australians can benefit from what we’re seeing?

“So, I think Hunter looks well set. It’s not exactly the same as the Type 26 that’s well reported now but there is a lot of commonality and I am confident that we will have a great capability in the future.”

Back in April, BAE Systems warned it was struggling to fill job vacancies in UK shipyards as it looked to complete eight Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy. Its related Canadian Surface Combatant project has reportedly doubled in cost and delivery time.

Asian rivals face off in Australia for multi-billion-dollar general purpose frigate prize

While scrutiny of Australia’s Hunter-class program continues, attention is growing too on the $10 billion competition to deliver up to 11 new “general-purpose frigates” to replace the navy’s ageing Anzac-class fleet under Project SEA 3000.

Companies from four countries are competing for the hotly contested shipbuilding prize, including Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Spain’s Navantia, Germany’s TKMS, as well as two rival Korean firms — Hanwha Ocean and Hyundai Heavy Industries.

During an international military conference in Perth last week, Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Chief Vice Admiral Mark Hammond singled out Japan’s shipbuilding industry for praise as the Asian nation pushes for its “Upgraded Mogami” frigate to be selected.

South Korean representatives show the Australian Navy officials a model of the Daegu-class frigate shortlisted for Project SEA 3000. (Supplied: Indian Ocean Defence & Security Conference 2024)

“Japan has done an exceptional job of leveraging emerging technology to reduce the crew size of their frigates and when you look at all four candidates that are under consideration for SEA 3000 for the General Purpose Frigate program,” he said.

“We’re looking at base crews of 90 to 100. You throw the helicopter team on board, you’re up to about 120. Anzac crew, about 180. Go and put it in the Red Sea, 200-220. You know, we can replace the Anzac ships with 11 general purpose frigates without increasing the crew liability.”

Many industry commentators believe the other leading competitor in SEA 3000 is South Korea, which has dramatically stepped up its sales pitch by publicly committing to the ambitious delivery of the first RAN general purpose frigate in the water by 2029.

Rear Admiral Hyun-Seung Shin, from Seoul’s Defence Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), declared if either of his country’s companies were selected South Korea could potentially deliver the first three overseas built ships by 2029.

“DAPA can guarantee that the lead ship, or the number one frigate, will be delivered to Australia by 2029, and for the number two and number three ship, we can deliver by 2030 at the latest,” he said.

“Also, on the request of the Australian government, we have the capacity to speed up the process and deliver all three ships by 2029,” Admiral Shin told the ABC during the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference.

“We also have the capacity to make full use of the weapons that have already been operated by the Australian Navy in the Anzac-class ship, so I also proposed that as well,” Admiral Shin said after meeting local defence officials.