Australia Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter lych470
- Start date
How are they gonna get Teslas and BYDs if they blockade their own shipping lanes?
Australia was going to spend $27 billion for a max of 450 infantry fighting vehicles?
That’s $60 million per IFV. It costs about as much as a new F-18 super hornet.
Lethe
Captain
Australia is going to need a significant uplift in defence expenditure to field all the toys it has committed itself to, this as an ageing population continues to erode the budgetary outlook. The current era of defence masturbation will certainly encounter serious headwinds as the bills start coming in and politicians have to deal with an electorate that will likely have little appetite for sacrificing e.g. aged care for nuclear submarines.
Defence chiefs warn $45b warships could be outgunned by enemies
Political correspondent
Feb 14, 2023 – 9.20am
Australia’s new $45 billion fleet of frigates risk being outmatched by adversaries before the first ship even hits the water, Defence officials warn.
Construction costs for the nine warships could also blow out, while the navy may be hit with staff shortages, jeopardising the capacity to ensure the frigates are seaworthy and can be deployed on operations.
A new report has raised fresh questions over the Hunter class frigate program.
The warnings are contained in a new auditor-general’s report into the Defence Department’s major projects.
The “emergent risk” identified in financial year 2022 comes on top of design issues and production delays that have been well-documented with the Hunter class frigate.
Construction of the first ship was meant to start at the end of 2022 but was pushed back to June 2024. However, the designer and shipbuilder BAE Systems plans to.
The government initiated an in an attempt claw back some of the delay.
One of the longest-running issues has been the weight of the ship, with the vessel bigger than first planned. The report notes that the “design is approaching fundamental naval architecture limits on weight and stability, and is in danger of either exceeding one or more platform limitations or providing in-service growth margins that substantially limit future capabilities”.
But the ANAO report also draws into question the capabilities of the frigate, which will form the backbone of the navy’s anti-submarine warfare force at a time China is growing the size and sophistication of its submarine fleet.
Defence officials flagged that the frigate may have “insufficient capability to counter current and emerging threats”, pledging to establish a “spiral development” program of regular updates.
Flagging budget issues, they also warned that the “acquisition and sustainment of Hunter Class Frigate is not achievable with the allocated funding”. The report also notes there is a “level of uncertainty unacceptable” to the government regarding the scope for construction of the first batch of frigates.
They also cautioned they may not be able to train and sustain a sufficient workforce “to support future navy capabilities and provide seaworthiness assurance”.
Strategic Analysis Australia chief executive Michael Shoebridge, a former Defence bureaucrat, said the department was acknowledging a known problem.
“A major surface combatant with only 32 vertical launch missile cells, as in the Hunter design, is vulnerable unless wrapped up in the protection of better armed vessels,” he said.
“Ordering nine such vessels with only three more capable but still underarmed Air Warfare Destroyers in the navy is an emerged not emergent risk.”
BAE Systems has reportedly made an unsolicited bid to the Albanese government to switch three of the future frigates to air warfare destroyers with up to 150 missile cells. Spanish shipbuilder Navantia has also made a pitch to the government’s Defence Strategic Review to build three more Hobart-class destroyers to join the three already in service.
Asked what steps were being taken to rectify or mitigate the issues raised in the report, the Defence Department stressed in a statement that identifying risks did not mean they had been realised.
“The Hunter class frigate program is a complex and challenging program in which risk and uncertainty needs to be managed in the context of a program spanning three decades that is currently in the first phase related to design and development,” a departmental spokeswoman said.
“Defence is not immune from the impacts of increasing global inflation rates, pressure on supply chains stemming from COVID impacts, and the war in Ukraine,” a Defence statement read.
“Defence is being transparent with these risks and issues, but this does not mean they have been realised or have resulted in changes to the program of record.”
They kind of forced the CEAFAR radar onto it because they wanted a somewhat high end AAW sensor suite.
If they ditched CEAFAR and adopted a simpler Artisan or Smart S class radar only, I'm sure they could've cut down the displacement quite a bit to Type 26 level.
Didn't expect to see 10,000 tonnes and Frigate in the same sentence but ok it is indeed destroyer/cruiser tonnage with frigate level armaments.