Future RAN supply ships to be built outside Australia

[CougarKing]

The Australian Government has decided that the RAN's next two supply ships will not be built in Australia.

News.com.au

Naval shipbuilding in Australia in limbo as the Abbott Government sends contracts offshore
7 HOURS AGO JUNE 07, 2014 6:23AM

THE future of naval shipbuilding in Australia hangs in the balance after the Abbott Government excluded local yards from a major new contract due to poor project performance.

In the first sign that the government has had enough, Defence will go offshore to buy two new replenishment ships for the fleet for $1.5 billion.
News Corp Australia last month revealed that the government was considering a Korean solution for the project to replace the ageing supply ships HMAS Success and HMAS Sirius and Defence Minister David Johnston announced a two-horse competition between Korean giant Daewoo Shipbuilding and Spanish builder Navantia.

Australian shipbuilders including BAE Systems in Melbourne, ASC in Adelaide and Forgacs in Newcastle have been deliberately excluded by the hard-line move that will place thousands of jobs at risk.

Senator Johnston blamed the “poor performance” of Australian yards working on the $8.5 billion Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) project, but added that the ships at more than 20,000 tonnes were too big for Australian yards.

(..EDITED)

 

[The Bread Guy]

Bumped with more recent statements along the same lines ....

The Abbott government has sent another clear signal that it will not ensure “at any cost” that naval shipbuilding – including the manufacture of a new fleet of submarines – takes place in Australia.

A new issues paper which foreshadows some of the broad policy directions to be set out in more depth in a new defence white paper due for release in 2015 is explicitly ambivalent about the quality and cost-effectiveness of local naval ship and submarine building.

“The government wants to see shipbuilding continue in Australia, but not at any cost,” the new issues paper says. It also says there is “significant debate emerging about the future submarine and whether it should be built in Australia”.

The issues paper cites the future of local shipbuilding as “one of the biggest defence industry issues” but points out there is an opportunity cost if projects cannot be delivered efficiently and cost effectively by Australian firms.

“While successive Australian governments have shown a willingness to support the shipbuilding and repair sector, industry performance has been patchy, with some successful projects and some that have fallen short of international benchmarks,” the new defence issues paper says ....

Defence issues paper here (65 pg PDF)