All is shipshape as defence project gets under way on Adelaide

The future of Australia’s naval ­defence strategy is coming to life in Port Adelaide.

Luerssen chief Jens Nielsen at the Osborne Naval Shipyard. Picture: James Elsby

The future of Australia’s naval ­defence strategy is coming to life at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Port Adelaide, with construction of the first offshore patrol vessel well under way.

Giant sheds were hoisted into place this week for the construction of the Hunter-class frigates under the Royal Australian Navy’s $89bn shipbuilding plan.

Despite squabbling between the states over maintenance jobs, and the checkered history of the old Australian Submarine Corporation that former defence minister David Johnston said “couldn’t build a canoe”, workers at the Osborne site are simply getting on with the job, with almost every major project in the 2017 Naval Shipbuilding Plan now under way.

The site is an example of how the federal government is trying to avoid past problems by creating a government enterprise, Australian Naval Infrastructure, to lease the shipyard to private sector ­defence giants who will use their expertise to deliver the ships and subs on time and on budget.

The shipbuilding plan will ­deliver 12 Attack-class submarines ($50bn), nine Hunter-class frigates ($35bn) and 12 Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels ($3.6bn) over the next 25 years.

The subs are being built by Naval Group Australia, the Australian arm of France’s Naval Group (formerly DCNS); the frigates by ASC Shipbuilding, whose parent company is British Aerospace; the OPVs by Luerssen Australia, the Australian arm of the German shipbuilder known in its homeland as Lurssen.

The plan also includes the construction of 21 Guardian-class ­Pacific patrol boats at a cost of $340m by WA shipbuilder Austal, the ships to be presented to 12 ­Pacific nations to work with Australia on national security and border protection.

Aside from their excitement at the scope of these vast projects, the chief executives of the companies are even more enthused about the benefits for other Australian businesses and workers, talking about a potential five-decade-long program framed around a permanent build that will change the nation.

“It will make the car industry look like a drop in the ocean,” Naval Group Australia chief executive John Davis said.

“We are talking about 5000 ­direct jobs for the total build phase of the program but it has the capacity to do much, much more than that.”

The subs are now in design stage and will spend the next four years undergoing laboratory testing before building begins in 2024, and will be in service by 2032.

“These subs are more complicated than the space shuttle, more complicated than a fighter jet,” Mr Davis said. “I wake up every morning excited about it. We are doing something transformational. We are going to have to transform the education system and the workforce so we can design, build and operate these vessels of the future.”

The chief executive of Luerssen Australia, Jens Nielsen, said the deliberate bias towards Australia in procurement and supply chain was already having spin-offs for local business.

Standing in front of the first of the 12 OPVs, which will be ready by December next year and used mainly for border protection, Mr Nielsen said Luerssen had ­already ensured more than 50 per cent of the materials and equipment were locally sourced or made.

The builders of the frigates, ASC Shipbuilding, will start construction by November 2022, or as managing director Craig Lockhart put it, “cut steel”.

“That’s what it’s all about ­essentially,” he said. “The whole process is taking raw materials on one side to a ship on the other.”