Senior defence officials are unconvinced by a Spanish offer to build extra destroyers, as rival shipbuilder outlines plans to peg back delays to frigate contract.
Senior Defence officials have downplayed the possibility of acquiring new Spanish built destroyers, as the shipbuilder behind the troubled $45 billion future frigate project says it has clawed back a year’s worth of delays and will start construction of the first parts of the ship in May next year.
The defence strategic review, overseen by former military chief Angus Houston and former defence minister Stephen Smith, is considering the proposal.But the Defence Department’s deputy secretary for the national naval shipbuilding program, Tony Dalton, questioned whether an overseas build would be quicker given the modifications required to meet the navy’s requirements, including having access to the US navy’s most up-to-date combat system.
BAE Systems is now confident it is achieving sufficiently high quality of work that from May next year, the blocks produced from then under its “enhanced prototyping” will be used for the first ship, slashing 13 months off the delay.“Having worked very hard to get to this point, we are comfortable that we have mitigated a significant amount of that risk,” BAE Systems Australia managing director for maritime Craig Lockhart said.
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