$45bn Adelaide-based Hunter class frigate project boosted by Defence Minister Richard Marles

A $45bn Adelaide defence project has been boosted by Defence Minister Richard Marles weeks ahead of a crucial decision on its future.

Workers on Adelaide’s $45bn Hunter class frigate project are being praised by Defence Minister Richard Marles ahead of the release of crucial review shaping the controversial program’s future.

Visiting the University of Adelaide on Tuesday, Mr Marles said the project to build nine frigates “has had its issues” but insisted there had been “real steps forward” and work on a prototype was “of the highest standard”.

Asked by The Advertiser what guarantees he could give the Hunter class project’s more than 1500 BAE Systems Australia workers, Mr Marles said he would not pre-empt the outcome of a surface fleet review to be released early next year.

The evolved Hunter Class design for the guided missile frigate. Supplied by BAE Systems Australia

The Advertiser has been told there is pressure within government on BAE to lift standards at the Hunter project, based at Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide’s northwest, particularly ahead of any decision on the constructor of AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines to be built at the same shipyard from the late 2020s.

“What I would say is that the Hunter program has had its issues, but there are real steps forward that are being taken by those working on Hunter right now out of Osborne,” Mr Marles said.

“The work that’s being done on the prototype blocks there is of the highest standard and BAE, who are also obviously building a Type-26 vessel for the UK Royal Navy, comment about how good that work is relative to their experiences in the UK.

“We’re obviously pleased with the fact that we are seeing very significant steps being taken forward in relation to that.”

A Nuclear Powered Submarine.

BAE in November pitched a major design change to navy, involving building a more lethal ship, by adding 64 vertical launch missile cells to take the total to 96.

If accepted by navy, the evolved guided missile frigate would be built from the fourth of nine ships constructed at Osborne.

Mr Marles said he was “very hopeful and optimistic” that legislation enabling AUKUS, particularly the $368bn nuclear-powered submarine construction centred on Adelaide, soon would pass the United States Congress.

He said his recent visit to Washington DC had emphasised the bipartisan value placed on the relationship with Australia, particularly the importance of AUKUS and the strategic value to the US of Australian building nuclear-powered submarines.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin III (centre), Defence Minister Richard Marles (left) and UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps (right) at the US Defence Innovation Unit in California for the second AUKUS Defence Ministers’ Meeting in early December. Picture: Lloyd Austin III, X (formerly Twitter).

Asked what another Donald Trump presidency would mean to AUKUS, Mr Marles again emphasised the bipartisan support across the three countries involved in the security pact.

“That is what gives confidence that over a multi-decade program, this will continue across all of our three countries because this is going to take place over the course of decades, it needs bipartisan support and it exists,” he said.