Frigate builder keen to lock in destroyers

Defence giant British Aerospace has one eye on building the next generation of Australia’s air warfare destroyers.

ASC Shipbuilding managing director Craig Lockhart.

Defence giant British Aerospace has one eye on building the next generation of Australia’s air warfare destroyers and will use the $35bn construction of nine Hunter-class frigates to push its case to ­Canberra.

Declaring the frigate program “bang on schedule”, ASC Shipbuilding managing director Craig Lockhart said the new frigates would be “the most advanced warships at sea”.

ASC Shipbuilding, now owned by British Aerospace, will begin construction on the first of the frigates at Port Adelaide’s Osborn shipyard in 2022 with a delivery date for the first vessels of 2027.

By that time, Mr Lockhart said, the company hoped to be in a position to bid for design and construction work for any future upgrade of the Australian navy’s AWDs.

“This is not just about building the nine frigates,” he said.

“In some ways, I hope that’s the easy part. It is about delivering ­sovereign capability. It’s about jobs, it’s about regions, it’s about supply chain.

“By the mid-2020s, I would like to be presenting the next proposal for the AWDs.”

Scots-born Mr Lockhart first moved to Australia in 2009 as ­Pacific area chief executive of the international defence and infrastructure conglomerate Babcock, before returning to Britain in 2015 to run the company’s naval marine division. He returned to Australia this April where his is now heading the frigate build.

“There are three steps: organise ASC Shipbuilding, develop a skilled workforce, take receipt of the yard,” he said.

“As the buildings are coming along, we are starting to see the footprint. I have got to have a build strategy and a supply chain, and we will soon be in the prototyping phase … by November 2022 we will start the building phase.”

Australia’s nine frigates are part of an international build of 32 that includes 15 for the Canadians and eight for Britain, three of which are under construction at Govan ­shipyard on the Clyde River in Glasgow.

About 40 Australians have been sent to Glasgow and will return to Osborn ahead of the build of the first set of Australia’s frigates.

About 900 local suppliers have been signed up to work on the frigates, which measure 150m, weigh 8500 tonnes and will be built on rollers to guide them into the sea.