Australian navy to get more warships in $11.1 billion funding boost

A revamp of the Royal Australian Navy will see the number of warships more than double and the addition of missile-firing drone ships. See the full details.

Australia’s sea lanes, islands and coastline borders will be defended by missile-firing drone ships and new modern combat frigates under ambitious plans for the future of Navy.

The Independent Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet review released on Tuesday more than doubles not only the size of the current warship fleet but the firepower capability.

Currently the Navy operates 11 warships with an earmarked potential to have 402 vertical launch cell missile systems but under the review it will now have 26 vessels and 702 launch cells.

The plan will see some ship building plans sunk and others surface but a commitment of $11.1 billion of new money in this year’s May Budget to create a new “fleet of lethality”.

The spend will lift Defence budget from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.4; up from 2.1 prior to Labor coming in.

Significantly, it will be the first time our maritime forces have embarked on an autonomous drone warfare program of this scale, with the acquisition of six Large Optionally Crew Surface Vessels (LOSVs).

Evolved Hunter Class design for guided missile frigate. Picture: BAE Systems Australia

The LOSVs will be acquired through formal agreement with the United States Navy and eventually be built locally here.

The LOSVs have 32 vertical missile launching cells for multi-domain land, sea and air strike capacity and can effectively be parked semi-permanently offshore or remotely put on patrol or in company of crewed warships.

While crews on the LOSVs are optional, they will be crewed in peacetime but uncrewed in more hostile times and environment.

The current perilous state of Navy’s outdated fleet matched by the region’s deteriorating strategic outlook has prompted the review and recommendation to significantly boost and or acquire a new combat fleet.

Australian navy to get more warships in $11.1 billion funding boost

The Independent Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet review has made 18 recommendations for the future maritime defence of Australia, most of which have been agreed to by the Federal Government.

“The size, lethality and capabilities of the future surface combatant fleet ensures that our Navy is equipped to meet the evolving strategic challenges of our region,” Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said on the release of the review.

Australia will have one of the newest and most potent navies in the world. Picture: Royal Australian Navy

Under the agreed plans, the number of British-designed Hunter class frigates currently being built in Adelaide will be reduced from nine ships to six while the Arafura Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) building program will be halved from 12 to 6.

The undergunned Arafura was branded unfit for military duty and only usable for civil border patrols.

HMAS Anzac, one of the oldest ships in the frigate fleet, commissioned in 1996, will not return to sea and will be immediately retired. HMAS Arunta will be the next to be decommissioned.

The RAN’s current three Hobart class destroyers will be overhauled to take on greater firepower and to supplement the Hunter frigate fleet, a fleet of between seven and 11 “Tier 2” general purpose frigates will also be built to secure trade routes and sea lanes, northern approaches and escort military assets.

The first three of these general purpose frigates will be built overseas from a shortlist of designs from Spain, Germany, Japan and South Korea. Critically they are already on production lines and the first three Australia will acquire will tag on the end of the orders

A majority of the overall new fleet will be built in Australia to guarantee ship building jobs of up to 3700 workers into the 2040s.

The Albanese government will earmark $11.1 billion of new money in this year’s May Budget to spend over 10 years to enhance Navy’s fleet lethality.

Critically, the new frigates will half the number of required crew from about 200 to 100 and together with the potential of drone ships, current shortfalls in Navy recruitment and retention was deemed manageable.