Peter Dutton sticks to his guns on frigates

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says the federal government will stick with the British-designed Hunter-class frigate, despite an array of problems.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Gary Ramage

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says the federal government will stick with the British-designed Hunter-class frigate, despite an array of problems revealed in an internal Defence Department ­report revealed by The Australian.

Mr Dutton told Sky News the government had considered a “Plan B” option for the $45bn frigates, but decided to stick with British contractor BAE Systems.

The Australian revealed on Monday that the frigates would be “substantially” slower and have a shorter range than originally ­intended, and could be vulnerable to detection by enemy vessels, ­according to a classified Defence Department report.

Mr Dutton acknowledged there had been problems with the British frigate, but said they were “being addressed”.

He said the government was not planning to dump BAE Systems as it had with France’s Naval Group – the former head contractor for the now-cancelled Attack-class submarines – or multi-role helicopter supplier Airbus.

“We’ve looked at the Plan B and we went through this project in great detail late last year,” Mr Dutton said. “We looked very carefully at this project and we’ve decided that we will proceed with it. The relationship with the ­United Kingdom is incredibly ­important. BAE is a very important partner with us.”

The November 2021 Defence “engineering team assessment” of the frigates program, seen by The Australian, sets out an array of ­serious problems with the “immature” British design, including safety issues for crew members who could become trapped below deck by floodwaters in “credible damage conditions”.

It warned the government’s contract with BAE Systems provided “very limited means … to influence contractor performance”.

The Australian has learned ­Defence’s in-house “Contestability Division” warned there was no proof of BAE Systems’ claims that its frigate was the world’s most ­advanced and stealthy, but was ultimately rebuffed when the contract was awarded to the company in 2018. Unlike its competitors, Spain’s Navantia and Italy’s Fincantieri, the BAE design was not based on a proven ship.

The Australian has been told Defence expressed a preference for the British frigate, but did not specifically recommend it to the national security committee of cabinet.

“There was a total lack of hard, verifiable, qualitative evidence about the relative anti-submarine performances of the ships, particularly the BAE one,” a former ­Defence official said.

“There was nothing to measure. So how could you compare the acoustic signature of the (BAE) vessel? It didn’t exist.

“We bought something on the promise of its alleged world-leading performance. There was no real evidence of that.”

A BAE Systems spokeswoman said the company had not received a copy of the November 2021 ­Defence report, but noted that “identifying risks is part of a normal design risk management ­process”.

“All large projects go through an engineering phase to identify and mitigate potential issues, and we’re working to deliver the best outcome for our customer,” the spokeswoman said. “The Hunter-class frigate program is making strong progress towards the delivery of a superior anti-submarine warfare capability for the Royal Australian Navy.”

Opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor declined to say whether a Labor government would launch a full-scale review of the frigates program if it won the upcoming election. But he said Labor will restore proper oversight over major defence ­projects.