Frontline navy frigate out of action as personnel crisis bites

One of the navy’s frontline warships, HMAS Anzac, has been pulled out of the water indefinitely amid crippling crew shortages and a cloud over planned life-extending upgrades.

HMAS Anzac has been pulled out of the water indefinitely amid crippling crew shortages. Picture: Defence

One of the navy’s frontline warships, HMAS Anzac, has been pulled out of the water indefinitely amid crippling crew shortages and a cloud over planned life-extending upgrades for the long-range frigate fleet.

The 27-year-old ship, which exited a mid-life overhaul only three years ago, was put on hard stands at Western Australia’s Henderson shipyard just over a fortnight ago.

The move comes as the government scrambles to chart the future of the surface fleet, with the ­Hunter-class frigate and Arafura-class patrol boat programs set to be slashed.

Each Anzac-class ship requires 179 personnel to operate, but Defence sources said a lack of crew members in key roles had made it close to impossible to keep all of the vessels in service.

The government had planned to upgrade all eight of the navy’s Anzacs to keep them going into the 2030s, when the Hunter-class were due to begin entering service to replace them, but the value of putting all of the ageing ships through the overhauls is now being questioned at the highest levels.

A Defence spokeswoman said the first-of-class HMAS Anzac had entered “a period of planned maintenance” on November 6 after returning from operations, but was unable to say when the vessel was due to return to the water.

A Defence insider said the navy would require “extended notice” to put the ship to sea, while a second source said there were live discussions inside government on mothballing the vessel to free up crew for the other Anzac frigates.

“They are so short of key personnel, particularly in the engineering department, that one unfilled billet can prevent a ship deploying,” the source said.

Another source said it would take the navy “years to recover” sufficient crew numbers to operate the full Anzac fleet.

“As a consequence of that, HMAS Anzac is up on blocks and they’re probably not going to put it through the upgrade program,” the source said.

The second and fifth ships in the class, HMAS Arunta and HMAS Parramatta, may also be passed over for upgrades.

It’s not the first time one of the Anzac frigates has been taken out of service because of a lack of crew – HMAS Perth was on hard stands for four years, re-entering the water only in 2021.

Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings said the only modern ships in the navy’s fleet were its three Hobart-class guided missile destroyers, while plans for the future fleet were in disarray ­because of the Hunter-class ­debacle.

“We’re losing navy capability, and the government is very clearly refusing to spend more money,” Mr Jennings said.

“This is a full-on disaster we are facing here unless something changes. I think it’s going to take a lot more money and new leadership, and some practical cut-through decision-making at a government level.

“And none of those things seem to me to be apparent right now.”

The government is due to announce the results of its surface fleet review early next year, which is set to cut the navy’s Hunter order from nine ships to six, or perhaps as few as three.

The Arafura-class offshore pat­rol vessel program – designated a “project of concern” in October – is also on the chopping block to make way for a fleet of small but ­lethal corvettes.

A typical corvette requires a crew of just 90, and has at least 16 surface-to-air missile cells.

The crewing difficulties come amid a wider Defence workforce crisis, with uniformed personnel numbers falling more than 3400 under target last financial year.

The ADF’s uniformed workforce contracted by 1161 personnel in 2022-23 to 58,642 – 5.5 per cent short of Defence’s 62,000 target.

The third-of-class Anzac frigate, HMAS Warramunga, is due to be the first overhauled, with the work commencing in mid-2024.

The government has so far funded three of the vessels to be upgraded, allocating $631m over five years for the works.