New article in The Australian - "
British, Italian ship bids given nod for subs warfare".
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation ... e10f994060
The British and Italian bids to build the nation’s new Future Frigates have been rated by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute as the most capable anti-submarine warfare ships on offer in the $35 billion SEA 5000 tender.
However, the third contender, Spain’s Navantia, has been identified as the least risky option, and likely the cheapest to build.
With a decision on the Future Frigate contract due within weeks, the institute has rated the three contenders for the contract on performance, project risk, industrial strategy and cost.
The institute’s latest paper said the Type 26 Global Combat Ship offered by Britain’s BAE Systems was “the most modern design”, but also the least proven option, with no ships yet completed.
The Type 26’s newness was a “two-edged sword”, the report said, with its performance based on projections “which should necessarily be regarded with some scepticism”. The FREMM, from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, was a “relatively new but proven design”, and well suited to an ASW-specific role.
“Relative to the Type 26, the FREMM offers the advantage of already being in service, and thus being more readily evaluated. For example, its acoustic signature can be measured, rather than being a projected figure,” the paper said.
It said Fincantieri, as a major builder of military and commercial ships, offered “probably the greatest opportunities for Australian industry” through access to its global supply chain.
Navantia had the benefit of its experience building the navy’s three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers, which its F-5000 future frigate is based on, and its capable Adelaide-based shipbuilding workforce.
“The Navantia vessel is almost certainly the least risky of the three contenders from a project risk perspective, in the sense of Navantia being able to start work relatively quickly,” the paper said.
The nine ship SEA 5000 contract was one of the biggest open to Western naval shipbuilders, and would be a defining one for Australia’s security and its shipbuilding industry, the paper said.
It rated the Type 26 as the “most risky” option, and “possibly the most expensive”.
The Spanish ship was likely to be the least expensive to build, unless significant design changes were mandated to deliver high-performance ASW capabilities. Fincantieri’s lack of familiarity with the Australian shipbuilding environment was a project risk for the Italians, the institute said.
It said the FREMM’s hangar capacity, which allows for two Seahawk ASW helicopters, was one of the major attractions of the Italian bid.
The Type 26’s large mission bay, which could house and deploy drones, surface craft, unmanned submarines, or a second Seahawk helicopter, was unique among the contenders, ASPI said, providing “flexibility for mission loads to change through life”. Unlike its rivals, the F-5000 cannot switch to run on electric motors, making it louder when hunting a submarine. The report said the F-5000 benefited from having more missile cells incorporated into its baseline design than the FREMM or the Type 26, giving it strong air- defence capabilities.
“The Hobart-class pedigree means it is a multipurpose combatant with ASW capabilities, rather than a design optimised from the start for ASW as its primary mission,” the paper said.
It noted the SEA 5000 tender called for a ship “optimised” for anti-submarine warfare. But it said the preferred vessel was likely to be chosen for its ability to perform a broad range of roles, given the frigates make up 75 per cent of the Navy’s surface fleet.
“As a result, we think the future frigates will be more accurately characterised as general purpose frigates with advanced ASW capabilities,” the paper said.
Whichever bidder won the contract, the success of the project and its benefits for the shipbuilding industry would hinge on how well the Australian government used its $35b leverage.
“Done well, with effective intellectual property rights agreed upfront, Australian firms can become export partners for the winning contractors’ own production and international sales,” the report said. Cabinet’s national security committee is expected to meet within the next four weeks to determine which of the contenders will win the contract.
