Australia Bets $68 Billion Navy Spend on Global Export Industry[/color]
Frigate building contract winner to be declared next year
Minister Pyne sees naval exports ‘worth billions of dollars’
Australia wants more from its $68 billion investment in new ships and submarines than just a more capable navy.
With final bids due this month on a A$35 billion ($27 billion) contract for nine anti-submarine frigates, Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said Australia is seeking a bigger role in naval shipbuilding.
“From an industrial point of view, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Pyne said in an interview on Tuesday. “The spin-off benefits,” he added, “we haven’t even begun to imagine.”
Australia last year awarded a A$50 billion contract to build 12 submarines to France’s DCNS group. With construction to be completed in Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s naval shipbuilding plan includes 12 offshore patrol vessels, up to 21 smaller patrol boats, and the nine warships known as the Future Frigates project.
Three Future Frigates bidders have been shortlisted, with the winner to be announced next year: The U.K.’s BAE Systems Plc, Madrid-based Navantia, and Italy’s Fincantieri SpA [all competing for RCN CSC, see below].
“The British are offering the most sophisticated design but it’s unbuilt and unproven,” said Andrew Davies, a defense analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. “The Spanish are offering a design that builds on what we’ve already done but is less sophisticated in many ways than the British ship. And the Italians are somewhere in between.”
‘Valley of Death’
Rising geopolitical tensions in the South China Sea and beyond make it vital to get the nation’s rejuvenated shipbuilding project right, Pyne said. Still, the government may face difficulties in getting Australia’s allies to commit to purchasing extra vessels, according to defense analyst Neil James...
The Australian government’s number one priority regarding the frigates is “capability, and the economic benefits of building in Australia are the second,” Pyne said. He declined to nominate a leading contender for the frigate contract...
While the first steel for the BAE Type 26 frigate’s U.K. operations will only be cut at the end of the U.K. summer, the fact it will be in production three years before construction is due to begin in Adelaide would “substantially de-risk” the program [emphasis added], said Chris Nunn, who is leading the BAE bid...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-05/australia-bets-68-billion-navy-spend-on-global-export-industry
