Critical decision on Adelaide’s $45bn frigate project due within days

The future of the $45bn Hunter Class frigate build will be determined within days, with the release of a crucial navy surface fleet review.

The future of Adelaide’s $45bn frigate project is expected to be determined next week with the long-awaited release of a crucial review into the navy’s surface fleet.

Between six and 16 Hunter Class frigates will be built at Osborne Naval Shipyard by BAE Systems Australia under a revised project scope, according to varying speculation.

In another appeal to his federal Labor colleagues, Premier Peter Malinauskas on Monday said a continuous shipbuilding program at Osborne, not the number of ships, was critical for national security.

The surface fleet review, received last September by Defence Minister Richard Marles, is expected to be released on or after February 20.

Both Mr Marles and Mr Malinauskas have repeatedly emphasised the importance of a continuous naval shipbuilding program ahead of Adelaide construction of nuclear-powered AUKUS submarines starting in the 2030s.

Evolved Hunter Class design for guided missile frigate. Supplied by BAE Systems Australia

Speculation about the Hunter program’s future has included at least six ships to be built at Osborne, costing about $4.5bn each, to a total of 16 – eight using a 96-missile design revealed last November and the other eight to the original 32-missile design.

More than 1800 BAE Systems Australia workers are involved with the Hunter project, which presently involves building nine ships.

Asked on Monday morning if anything less than nine ships would be a failure, Mr Malinauskas said he had not yet received any official confirmation about the project’s future.

“I don’t want nine (ships). I don’t want 12 or 15. What I want is a continuous ship build in South Australia forevermore. That’s the promise this government has made,” he said.

“ … The navy is always going to require large combat surface ships. They should be produced here in Adelaide.

“The critical element for people to appreciate is this is not just an economic question for South Australia, this is about making sure we have the sovereign capability to defend ourselves as a middle-power country in a strategically complex environment, in probably the most significant region of the 21st century.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas says the frigates should be produced in Adelaide. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Roy VanDerVegt

Mr Malinauskas said a “smooth, continuous pipeline” of work was needed until the 2030s, regardless of whether subsequent ships were the Hunter frigates, a variant, air warfare destroyers or a different ship altogether.

Mr Marles told parliament on February 8 there was a “way to go” before the Defence Department had a “culture of excellence”, accusing the former Coalition government of making $45bn worth of frigate announcements without “putting a cent behind them”.

“When you lead the oldest surface fleet in our country since the Second World War, that is demoralising and it has been,” he said.

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

State Opposition Leader David Speirs said: “South Australians were promised nine frigates and anything less than that is a failure by the Albanese Government – and by Peter Malinauskas for not fighting hard enough to secure local defence jobs for decades to come.”