Giant buildings at Osborne Naval Shipyard come to life for $35 billion frigate project
Work will start on our new frigates in just a few weeks – in a shipyard bigger than Adelaide Oval. These comparisons show the warships’ true scale.
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Steel will be cut within weeks for the $35bn frigate project at Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide’s west, where giant new sheds dwarf those used to build subs and destroyers.
A $535m expansion of Australia’s premier shipbuilding facility has added three huge industrial buildings – the largest longer than the 187m Adelaide Oval playing field and standing as tall as the Riverbank Stand viewing platform at 50m.
Work will start in December on building prototypes as part of the design process for the Hunter Class frigate, ahead of construction of the first of nine ships starting in 2022.
BAE Systems Australia subsidiary ASC Shipbuilding is building the frigates at the Port River shipyard, founded for the six-submarine, $5bn Collins Class project in 1987.
About 950 people are working on the Hunter program, including 700 in Australia – with most based in Adelaide.
About 225 people are working at Osborne on an offshore patrol vessel program and a further 60 are closing out the $9bn, three-ship air warfare destroyer project.
At its expected peak in 2028, it’s thought 2400 people will be employed with the frigate project.
Even before the shipyard is further expanded to the north for the $50bn project to build 12 Attack class submarines, the frigate complex overwhelms the areas used for the air warfare destroyers and the original Collins Class boats.
ASC Shipbuilding managing director Craig Lockhart said the frigate was a next-generation global combat ship, able to detect and deal with multiple threats across a 360-degree view using sophisticated radar, sonar and combat systems.
“We will be able to search completely below and we’ll be able to 360-scan our environment, and with the new air warfare missile defence systems, this will be one of, if not the, most advanced warships at sea,” he said.
“And that’s part of the challenge. That’s part of the design effort, to make sure that we can incorporate all of that new change in flight and fight and still have the whole ship perform against key characteristics: speed, range, acceleration, noise, sea keeping.
“That’s part of the design challenge. Our role is to incorporate all of those changes but make sure the ship still works as a whole ship against those key essential criteria.” He said the design involved integrating the British Type 26 frigate with key components including a US combat system at the top side of the ship – or the fight and flight section.
ASC is rejecting reports that the frigate program could be delayed by up to two years because key parts of the design are unfinished, insisting it has not asked for a schedule delay and is on target to meet the “cardinal milestones” of cutting steel for prototyping in December and first-of-class construction in 2022. Mr Lockhart said testing the supply chain was vital before prototyping started.
“So when we get ready to press a button in December, we’ve got to make sure the supply chain is capable (and) ready,” he said.
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