Spanish naval giant Navantia eyes expansion in Western Australia

Spanish naval giant Navantia has begun establishing a significant footprint in WA.

The Navantia-built HMAS Supply (A195) is now in RAN service in Sydney. Picture: LSIS Christopher Szumlanski/Defence Department

Spanish naval giant Navantia has begun establishing a significant footprint in WA. The company, which has designed 19 vessels for the RAN since 2006, will come under the spotlight again next month when the second of the RAN’s two new supply ships, NUSHIP Stalwart, is scheduled to arrive in Fremantle from Spain.

Navantia is eyeing expansion opportunities in WA, according to its new managing director, Israel Lozano Barragán, who succeeded Alfonso Garcia-Valdes earlier this month and is based at Navantia Australia’s Sydney head office. The company currently employs 180 people and expects to grow to about 250 over the next two years, many of whom will be based in Fremantle.

Navantia Australia was formed a decade ago to establish a sovereign design and engineering capability to support the maintenance and upgrading of the ships it designed for the RAN. It is now looking to the navy’s Joint Support Ship project, SEA 2200, as an opportunity to develop this capability further, along with a sovereign production capability, in line with Australia’s Naval Shipbuilding Plan.

Under this project, worth $4-6bn, Defence plans to buy two new support and supply ships of about 16,500 tonnes each. Australia would be the launch customer for these vessels, although New Zealand is also a potential client, and all ships could be constructed in WA. The company is committed to establishing a sovereign supply chain to be part of this major acquisition in new capability, Lozano tells The Australian.

However, there’s no economic sense in creating a new shipbuilding capacity for just two or three vessels. So Navantia Australia is considering the broader market potential for other naval and commercial ships, as well as for more utilitarian products such as floating structures to support offshore wind turbines, which could represent a pathway to exports and shape its strategy for establishing a design and construction capability in WA.

The same goes for the maritime sustainment market. Under a strategic agreement signed with Defence in May last year, Navantia Australia is now the design authority for all the RAN’s Navantia-designed ships.

In the short term, the company is preparing the sustainment support system for NUSHIP Stalwart at Fleet Base West and it would make sense to use this capacity to serve other navy assets as required, whether designed by Navantia or other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). This will be the basis for a new, hi-tech shipbuilding and repair business devoted to naval and commercial customers in WA, the company says.

However, Navantia Australia doesn’t intend to duplicate anything that already exists, so instead it has formed partnerships with established marine sustainment and engineering firms in WA and on the east coast.

Under the strategic agreement with Defence, Navantia Australia will maintain, update and upgrade the integrated platform management system (IPMS) for Navantia-designed ships, which will all be managed from Australia. This partly drives its own R & D in sovereign digital technologies, such as data analytics, using its knowledge of complex ship systems to develop software to provide smart solutions for naval maintenance and also for export.

“Funding would enable us to advance development and commercialise these solutions,” Lozano says. “With the support of the government and at the request of the customer, Navantia Australia could develop a digital twin for ship systems.”

Navantia designed the navy’s two Supply-class AORs, based on the Spanish navy’s own Cantabria-class AORs. These were built at El Ferrol and then transferred to Australia for completion by Navantia Australia. The first, HMAS Supply, docked in Fremantle last year where her Saab 9LV Mk3 combat system and communications suite were completed and she was fitted with Nulka antimissile decoys, phalanx close-in weapons system (CIWS), and twin Typhoon 25mm guns. After final sea trials, HMAS Supply is now in RAN service in Sydney.

NUSHIP Stalwart will undergo the same process, but remain at Fremantle’s HMAS Stirling, where she’ll support the RAN force homeported there.

For a ship that was built in Spain, the Supply-class AORs have 30 per cent Australian content, Lozano says. Australian components, such as the SAAB 9LV combat management system, self-defence systems such as the CWIS and accommodation components, are already incorporated into the ships. The ship is also completely built with Australian BlueScope steel.