Monday 17 August 2015

Royal Australian Navy's Anzac Class Frigates replacements to be build in Australia



Tony Abbott announced the new surface ships would be built at Osborne in Adelaide on Tuesday.
The Government will build a fleet of frigates at the ASC shipbuilding yard from 2020, and a further fleet of Offshore Combatant Vessels (OCV) from 2018, with the start dates for both projects brought forward.
Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said total acquisition costs were in the order of $89 billion.
Article 


What will happen to ASC? Will it be sold or retained in government hands as a Government Business Enterprise (GBE) or, perhaps, reestablished as a Government Owned Corporately Operated (GOCO)?
If ASC is sold, will it be sold intact or broken up into its submarine and shipbuilding component?
How will the resulting shipbuilding monopolies be managed? What will stop the private sector monopolies from delivering public sector productivity while booking private sector profits?


I am posting this to keep the reader updated on RAN's Anzac Class Frigate replacement program , formally as the The Future Frigate/Sea 5000 project. I covered the issues involved with the project in a previous article .Like with the Collins Class Submarine replacement my hope is that some patriotic belief in the Australian shipbuilding industry will see a cutting edge /next generation design will emerge.

Also I think modernisation of the Australian shipbuilding industry is a tricky proposition. Nobody is talking about the role 3D Printing and Robotics will play in shipbuilding to small scale manufacturing.

For the record. My Prediction is the the Type 26 Frigate will be chosen as the design basis for the Sea 5000 Project. Elements of the design will be altered to suit the RAN's operational goals. So the likes of radars and combat systems will be chosen for interoperability with the USN. The USN is the RAN main coalition partner.

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