OPINION | Scandalous US warship program would be a shining success in Australia
A troubled US Navy frigate program looks like a humming top of efficiency and value compared to the Australian Department of Defence’s AU$27 billion (US$17 billion) program to get three Hunter-class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The bad news is the Australian Government isn’t doing anything to change things, releasing an "updated" naval shipbuilding plan that leaves the Hunter frigate program to bumble along for decades.
Back to the US. The Pentagon is buying 10 Constellation-class frigates for about AU$18 billion (US$11 billion). The contract started in 2020 and the first of ten warships is expected to be delivered to the US Navy in 2029. The first warship is now expected to cost about AU$2.2 billion (US$1.4 billion), with the next nine costing around AU$1.8 billion (US$1.1 billion) each.
The dark comedy for Australia is that this US program is considered a disastrous scandal in US defence circles – because the frigates are costing too much, delivering too little warfighting capability, and taking too long to deliver.
Meanwhile, the Australian Defence Department’s latest Annual Report revealed that the approved acquisition cost for the RAN's first three Hunter-class frigates is AU$27.1 billion (US$17 billion).
That’s a smidgen over AU$9 billion (US$5.6 billion) a ship, with the first ship scheduled to be delivered to the RAN in 2032, 14 years after Defence awarded the contract back in 2018. The contractor is BAE, which also builds the UK’s nuclear submarines. They are also going to be the designers and builders of Australia’s future submarines.
Yes, at AU$9 billion each, Australia is paying over AU$7 billion (US$4.3 billion) more per ship than the US is paying and the US Navy is getting its first ship five years sooner. None of that last sentence is a typo – it’s a tragedy.
The US Navy’s Constellation-class frigates are highly modified versions of an Italian warship. Some RAN folk will howl with outrage to hear this, but they’re a similar size and type to the Hunter. In fact, the Italian frigate was one of the shortlisted contenders for the Hunter contract.
We know about the troubles and the details of the US program because America’s Congressional Research Service has released an updated report to inform Congress’s powerful Armed Services committees.
Despite the firehose of public money being poured into Australia's defence organisation over this next decade – AU$765 billion (US$479 billion) – Australia has nothing like this highly effective and insightful agency. So, we have far less visibility into the workings of Australia’s secretive Defence establishment. Instead, we’re left learning from US reports.
Congress’s defence committees aren’t just reading the report. They are using it to pressure Pentagon officials to fix this US Navy program. A possible outcome is building the ships at a second shipyard to bring costs down and speed up delivery – because the Pentagon also seems to think the current situation is unacceptable.
From the point of view of Canberra, bogged in the slow-motion debacle that is the Hunter frigate program, the "scandalous" US Navy Constellation program looks like a fast moving project delivering exceptional value for money.
The US is showing that you don’t need to just watch a troubled defence program continue to fail. That’s a lesson that people must learn and learn fast in Australia with the projects that are meant to be equipping the RAN.
Australia needs to end the Defence department’s wasteful spending of billions of taxpayer dollars for two reasons: it’s public money being used badly, and at this dangerous time, Australians need their defence dollars to result in world class equipment getting to the military effectively and quickly.
The kind of waste and delay we see with the Hunter frigate program is clearly not acceptable in the halls of Australia's American allies. It shouldn’t be acceptable in Australia, either.
This article is reposted here with the permission of Strategic Analysis Australia.
