Delayed frigates ‘back on track soon’, says contractor BAE

The delayed $45bn project to build nine Hunter-class frigates for the navy could be back on schedule as soon as June.

The Hunter Class Frigates. Pictiure: BAE

The delayed $45bn project to build nine new Hunter-class frigates for the navy could be back on schedule as soon as June next year, the head of the program says.

Craig Lockhart, managing director of BAE Systems Australia, said it was his expectation the shipbuilder could quickly claw back the 18-month delay on the project.

His comments come ahead of an independent report on the project commissioned by the Albanese government to explore ways to improve the troubled program, the most expensive warships in the nat­ion’s history.

The report is due this month but it is unclear whether the government will release its findings.

The government is anxious to avoid new delays in the program to build the frigates, which will specialise in anti-submarine warfare at a time when China is rapidly building up the size and sophistication of its submarine force.

Mr Lockhart cautioned that any rapid return to schedule could still be undermined by aspects outside BAE Systems’ direct control, including labour shortages and supply chain issues. “There are many things that can affect that: can we continue to grow the labour at the right (speed)? Can we expect continued response from the supply chain in terms of schedule and cost, because a lot of the key suppliers have been distracted about what’s going on in Europe?” he said.

Mr Lockhart in August said the shipyard had clawed back 13 months of the 18-month delay in cutting steel on the first ship.

He said continued improvements in the quality of building practice “prototype” blocks on the Osborne site meant the final prototype would be good enough to use on the first frigate, and the full schedule could be recovered.

The next review of the maturity of the frigate design will be the preliminary design review in June.

“We’ve got the shipyard, we’ve got the people, we’ve got the supply chain and we’ve got design ­maturity,” he said.

Mr Lockhart’s hopes of recovering the project’s original schedule have not been confirmed by the navy, which has not released an updated schedule.

In August last year, the navy and BAE Systems agreed to an 18- month delay to the start of the project partly because of the immature design of the parent ship, Britain’s Type-26 frigate, upon which the Hunter-class is modelled. Designers also struggled with the fact that the Australian boat was heavier than expected after navy-requested modifications were incorporated, including the US combat system and Australian-made radar.

It was expected that the 18- month delay would be progressively recovered over the life of the project, with the first frigate due to be handed to the navy in 2031.

Despite the troubled start to the project, Defence Minister Richard Marles has said the government is committed to doing what it can to ensure the ships are delivered on time and on budget.

“We’ve had really frank conversations not only today but over the last few months about what the government expects in respect of getting the frigate program on track,” Mr Marles said in August when he visited the Glasgow shipyard where the Type-26 frigates are being built.

Mr Lockhart said the Hunter-class designers had made good progress on combating the ship’s weight issues, amid claims by critics that there was too little weight margin to allow for future upgrades of modern weapon systems.

He said the 10,000-tonne weight often quoted by critics was only after the warship was “filled up, when she is completely armed to the teeth”.

Mr Lockhart said the designers had managed to hold the ship’s ­design weight steady “for some time now” and the designers of the Type-26 in Britain had also managed to stabilise the weight on the reference ship.

“We are now in a good position as far as weight margins are concerned compared to the initial speed bumps we had,” he said.

Mr Lockhart said the Hunter-class, when delivered, would be a much-needed and timely addition to Australia’s defences at a time when submarines posed an ever greater threat. “Hunter is very much a leading-edge ASW capability,” he said. “It will provide the most effective response to a growing underwater battlespace in our near maritime region.”