Defence confirms down-select of two General Purpose Frigate builders

Defence has confirmed the widely reported down-select of two shipbuilders, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), to progress designs for Australia’s future general purpose frigates, worth up to $10 billion, under Project SEA3000.

Defence will now work with MHI, TKMS and Australian industry partners to further develop the proposals for the two companies’ Mogami and MEKO A-200 frigates, respectively, and for a reported (but unknown) third design – a variant of either the A-200 or the Mogami-class – that was mentioned by Marles in a media conference in Perth a few days before the official announcement.

The General Purpose Frigates (GPF) will replace the RAN’s eight existing Anzac-class frigates and will be equipped for undersea warfare and local air defence in order to secure Australia’s maritime trade routes and northern approaches.

The GPF program is designed to ensure the RAN is equipped with a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet to respond to Australia’s more adverse strategic circumstances, according to a Defence statement. Whichever design is selected, the first three will be built in the company’s own yard and between four and seven will be built by Austal Ships at the consolidated Henderson shipyard in Western Australia.

“The Albanese Government is committed to ensuring our Navy is equipped with a larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet, and the general purpose frigate program is a key aspect of this,” according to Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. “Navy’s future fleet will constitute the largest number of surface combatants since World War Two and will be integral to ensuring the safety and security of our sea lines of communication and maritime trade.”

It’s still not clear what sensor, Combat Management System (CMS) and missile fit the winning ship will have. The ship will operate the Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopter and it seems possible that it will have the same missiles and ASW torpedoes as the RAN’s other surface combatants as well as the same CMS in order to maintain commonality across its entire fleet for both logistics and training.

Both designs are capable of accommodating the Saab Australia 9LV Mk3E CMS, though neither are currently built with this CMS, and both are fitted with the Mk41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) which means they can operate the same surface-air missiles as the rest of the RAN surface fleet. On publicly available data the TKMS design and Mogami 30FFM are both equipped with 32 Mk41 VLS cells; the MEKO A200 may also be capable of carrying the CEAFAR radar which equips all of Australia’s other surface combatants. Both designs can accommodate deck-launched Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) also and both carry hull-mounted sonars and can be fitted with towed sonar arrays.

Defence plans to invest up to $55 billion over the decade, including up to $10 billion for the GPFs, as part of a plan that will more than double the size of the RAN’s surface combatant fleet. The decision to progress the Mogami and MEKO A-200 designs was informed by a rigorous evaluation by Defence that identified these designs as likely to best meet Australia’s capability requirements, the department says. In May this year Defence released an approach to market to five shipbuilders of the exemplar platforms identified by the Independent Analysis of Navy’s surface combatant fleet.

“This program is moving at pace to ensure the Navy is equipped with the ships it needs to keep Australians safe,” said Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery. “The rapid, accelerated work of the general purpose frigate program to date underpins the next stages of the acquisition to ensure this capability is delivered this decade, providing our Navy with enhanced anti-submarine and anti-air warfare capabilities.”

The construction of the GPFs at the Henderson Defence Precinct is part of Defence’s plan to invest tens of billions of dollars in defence capabilities in Western Australia over the next two decades, supporting in the order of 10,000 well-paid, high-skilled local jobs.

Defence says it will engage closely with the down-selected shipbuilders to progress this program and ensure Australia’s first GPF is delivered this decade.