The better ship won, now get on with it

A Mogami-class frigate, built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Picture: Defence

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was always going to win the race to build the navy’s next generation frigates, and its German rival knew it.

A figure linked to Germany’s TKMS told this reporter months ago he believed the company had been drawn into a “Ferrari vs. Ford” contest.

There’s no doubt it was.

As Richard Marles said on Tuesday morning: “The Mogami is absolutely the best ship and that was very clear in all the advice that we received.”

He didn’t need an eight month process to come to that conclusion. It was obvious to anyone who’d run the ruler over the vessels.

Japan’s Mogami frigate has 32 vertical launch missile cells. Germany’s MEKO-A200 has 16.

The Japanese ship has a stealthy design. The German ship doesn’t.

The Mogami is designed to be operated by a crew of 90. The MEKO-A200 requires a crew of 120.

The Japanese vessel has an operational life of 40 years, compared to 30 years for its German rival.

The better ship won. That’s a great result for the navy, and the country.

After so many defence procurement stuff ups (including the Hunter-class frigates and the French Attack-class subs, to name just two) it was high time Defence got something right.

The Japanese bid also had the advantage of having a hot offshore production line to rapidly churn out at least the first three ships.

And in an extraordinary move, Japan offered to allocate Australia a ship that was originally intended to go to its own navy.

The main questions over the Mogami bid were on price, and MHI’s ability to transfer production to Western Australia. But the government says the bidders’ cost and industrial plans were ultimately on par.

As our TKMS-linked source conceded on Tuesday, the Mogami is also a “sexy ship”. TKMS’s “reference ship” was a MEKO-A200 built for the Egyptian Defence Force. It just didn’t have the same appeal as a hi-tech stealth frigate operated by Japan.

Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy can say hand on heart that Australia’s special strategic relationship with Japan didn’t come into the decision, because the Mogami was in another league entirely.

But the choice is undoubtedly the right one to cement Australia and Japan’s quasi alliance, and both nations’ defence partnerships with the US, which quietly backed the Japanese bid.

All three nations are united by a desire to counter China’s military build-up in the Indo-Pacific. It’s a no-brainer that we integrate our militaries and defence industries as closely as possible.

The shipbuilding partnership will give Australian industry the benefit of working with one of the world’s most advanced manufacturers, lifting up local firms and opening up new export opportunities.

The result is a credit to the government’s disciplined approach to the frigate contest. It demanded a vessel already in production that would not be modified to suit Australian requirements.

It’s true the upgraded Mogami that Australia will get is not technically in-service, but it shares 90 per cent of its design with the original version, 11 of which are already in the water.

The biggest risk to the project stems not from MHI, but from Australia’s Defence Department. It needs to abandon its meddlesome ways and let the company get on with the job.

As Conroy conceded on Tuesday, there is a chance the Henderson shipyard and newly-announced sovereign shipbuilder, Austal, won’t be ready to commence domestic production from the fourth ship in the build schedule.

That would be a blow for Australian industry, but it would hardly be a problem for the navy. It would get more ships more quickly than it otherwise would if additional hulls were built in Japan.

With the first of the botched Hunter-class frigates not due to enter service until 2034, the navy needs new warships, and it needs them fast.