Corvettes looming as capability answer in navy review

An overhaul of the navy to be announced next week is expected to green light a new fleet of ‘Tier 2’ warships armed with missiles to patrol Australia’s north.

A $5bn-a-ship Hunter-class frigate.

An overhaul of the navy to be announced next week is expected to green-light a new fleet of “Tier 2” warships armed with missiles to patrol Australia’s northern approaches, as Labor attempts to restore its standing on defence.

With the navy’s $5bn-a-ship Hunter-class frigate program set to survive the government’s surface fleet review, Defence Minister Richard Marles has been locked in a funding battle with cabinet colleagues and service chiefs to find money for the new corvette fleet.

Mr Marles is set to release in Adelaide next week former US admiral William Hila­rides’ review of the surface fleet, together with the government’s response.

A senior Labor source indicated the response would be consistent with recommendations of last year’s Defence Strategic Review, which called for a navy with a “larger number of smaller surface vessels”.

The government’s national security credibility hinges on its ability to set the Australian Defence Force on a path to get more firepower within the next decade – the critical ­period of national security risk.

The expected confirmation of at least six Hunter-class frigates will deny the navy new surface warships until at least 2032, when the first is due to enter service, unless the government can fast-track a new Tier 2 capability.

Defence has been in talks with half a dozen international shipbuilders on potential corvette ­designs, including an evolved version of the Anzac frigate proposed by German shipbuilder TKMS, and another based on Spanish shipbuilder Navantia’s Avante family of patrol vessels.

Light warships from Japanese, South Korean and British shipbuilders have also been examined.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said Mr Marles’s future depended on his ability to find more money to fund new Defence capabilities.

“That’s the test. New money at the May budget, or he should go,” he told the ABC.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the opposition had made $42bn of unfunded capability promises, in an implicit warning that there were looming program cuts.

DSR co-author Peter Dean said the navy needed more options beyond its large “exquisite platforms”.

“So the question has become: what can they do at the Tier 2 level?” he said.

“The key there is, does it have missiles on it? Is it cheaper? Is it easy to produce? Can you get more of them?

“Because, of course, it’s about quantity as well as quality.

“You need something that’s big enough to operate in that area that can protect itself and project some force.

“However, bigger is not always better, as we are seeing in contemporary conflicts.”

Former Defence official Marcus Hellyer said the cost of a corvette program could be “reasonably manageable” if Defence resisted the temptation to modify off-the-shelf designs.

“There has to be discipline inside the department,” Dr Hellyer said.

“So if the department starts by saying, ‘Well, it’s got to have an Aegis (US) combat system, or it’s got to have (Australian-made) CEAFAR radar, it’s got to have US weapons.

“If the government wants something quickly and relatively affordable, it truly has to be off-the-shelf.”