Departing Australian government weapons supremo Warren King has hailed Prime Minister Tony Abbott's adoption of a continuous naval shipbuilding program as the most profound and important decision for the defence industry in 114 years.
Mr King who, as head of the government weapons purchaser, the Defence Materiel Organisation, was responsible for spending $12 billion a year managing 180 ongoing defence projects, said the commitment to avoid productivity-crippling mass layoffs between major warship projects gave the naval construction sector a "one-off opportunity to show it could lift productivity to world's best practice".