Japan intensifies frigate sales pitch with upcoming port visits

Japan is ramping up its bid to sell $10bn worth of new warships to Australia, dispatching one of its Mogami-class frigates for port visits to Darwin and Fremantle in coming weeks.

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force frigate JS Mogami. Picture: Getty Images

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Japan is ramping up its bid to sell $10bn worth of new warships to Australia, dispatching one of its Mogami-class frigates for port visits to Darwin and Fremantle in coming weeks.

The ship – an earlier version of the vessel being pitched to Australia – is due to arrive in Australia in about a fortnight, and is expected to participate in joint exercises with Royal Australian Navy ships.

The Japanese government has thrown its full weight behind the bid, helping to position its shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as firm favourite in the contest with Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

Japan’s Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said the visit by the frigate Noshiro would help strengthen co-operation and mutual trust between the two navies.

“Japan and Australia share fundamental values and strategic interests, and we have formed a special strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

The visit will give Australian navy commanders a chance to see the ship up close ahead of a final decision on the so-called SEA3000 general purpose frigate tender later this year.

It’s understood a series of special exercises will be held to put the frigate through its paces with several Australian warships.

Australia will purchase 11 new frigates, with the first three to be built offshore and the remainder at Henderson in Perth.

Japan is offering Australia an upgraded Mogami design that is yet to be built but is said to share about 85 per cent of the original ship’s design.

The government’s decision to consider the upgraded version came despite a strict requirement that the contenders be off-the-shelf designs that were already in-service.

Germany’s TKMS fears the frigate contest is shaping up as a “Ford v Ferrari” race, pitting its proven Meko A-200 design against the newer Mogami.

Egypt's ENS Al-Jabbar, a Meko-A200 frigate built by Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. Picture: TKMS

TKMS, which built Australia’s Anzac-class frigates, is leaning heavily on its experience constructing ships for foreign buyers and points to its success working with Australia’s heavily unionised shipbuilding sector.

Former naval officer Jennifer Parker, an adjunct fellow at UNSW Canberra, said the Mogami visit was part of a strategy by the Japanese government to showcase its ship and the benefits of closer defence ties between the countries.

“It’s clearly meant to be a demonstration of the Mogami’s capabilities and it’s also an opportunity for the Royal Australian Navy to understand more about the Mogami and how it operates,” she said.

“There has been a clear push by the Japanese government and the Japanese Self Defence Force to promote the Mogami as part of developing a wider relationship between the two countries.”

The Japanese bid is seen as more risky given its newer design and its lack of experience building ships in another country.

But Tokyo is determined to win the contract, seeing it as a chance to integrate the nations’ defence industries and strengthen bilateral military co-operation to counter rising Chinese threats.

“We don’t see ‘SEA3000’ as just a project but rather as part of broader efforts to strengthen an already-growing equipment co-operation with an important regional partner amid an increasingly severe security environment,“ a senior Defence Ministry official told The Japan Times in a recent interview.

The country recently established a powerful new “all-Japan” committee to lead its tender bid, drafting economic and trade officials and private sector executives to help strengthen its sales pitch.

The new warships will replace the navy’s Anzac-class frigates, two of which have already been retired. The first of the new vessels is due for delivery by the end of 2029.