Australia’s government this week announced its plans to double the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet in over a decade with plans for billions more in funding.
The government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is planning for a future surface fleet of 26 major surface combatants: three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers, six
Hunter-class frigates, 11 new general purpose frigates with maritime and land strike, air defense and escort capabilities and six new Large Optionally Crewed Surface Vessels (LOSVs) to improve long-range strike capability, and six remaining Anzac-class frigates upgraded with “enhanced maritime strike capabilities.”
Australia currently fields eight Anzac-class frigates, but it said the two oldest will be decommissioned “close to their original planned withdrawal from service.”
The Australian Defense Ministry also said it accepts an independent analysis recommendation for another 25 “minor war vessels” that includes six Offshore Patrol Vessels to aid civil maritime security operations.
If the plan reaches fruition, the Hunter-class frigates would be built at the Osborne shipyard in South Australia before it moves on to building the successor of the Hobart-class destroyers. The ministry said the Hobart destroyers would also be upgraded with the newest Aegis combat system.
“The enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet will ensure the Navy is optimized for operations in our current and future environment, underpinned by the meticulous assessment conducted by the Independent Analysis Team…the Royal Australian Navy must be able to ensure the safety and security of our sea lines of communication and trade routes as they are fundamental to our way of life and our prosperity,” Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a statement.
Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, underscored this will help secure Australian naval shipbuilding, “supporting 3,700 direct jobs over the next decade and thousands of indirect jobs for decades to come.”
The government argued the general purpose frigates will be “accelerated” to replace the Anzac-class frigates, so previously planned Transition Capability Assurance (TransCAP) upgrades are no longer required. It boasted the new frigates will be more lethal while requiring smaller crews than the Anzac-class.
The government expects the Henderson Naval Precinct in Perth, Western Australia to ultimately be able to build eight of these new frigates and also “enable a pathway to build six new Large Optionally Crewed Surface Vessels in Western Australia,” the ministry said.
The Albanese government argued this design will provide a “stable and ongoing pipeline” of work through the 2040s.
It said it would have to add $1.12 billion over the Forward Estimates, which is the next three budget years after the current proposal, akin to a shorter version of the U.S. Defense Department’s Five Year-long Future Years Defense Program plans.
The government also estimates it will add $7.3 billion over the next decade for this “accelerated delivery of the Navy’s future surface combatant fleet and to expand Australia’s shipbuilding industry.”
The ministry said this addition will raise surface fleet acquisition and sustainment costs to $35.6 billion over the next decade.
This fleet increase is an outgrowth of an independent analysis of the surface fleet it received in October 2023 but was never publicly released. The review “found in excess of $25 billion in unfunded promises in the former government’s acquisition and sustainment plans. This meant there was no certainty for Australian industry and workforce,” the ministry said.
If the plan goes through, the Albanese Government will enter into a build contract for the Hunter-class frigates with construction starting this year. The last frigate would be delivered by 2043.
These plans are in addition to the government’s plans under the tripartite AUKUS agreement with the U.S. and U.K. to help it be able to field and produce new nuclear-powered attack submarines in the 2040s. Australia intends to start fielding new and used Virginia-class submarines from the U.S. in the 2030s before it later starts building the SSN-AUKUS submarines in the early 2040s.
Andrew Hastie, shadow defense minister for the opposition Liberal Party, said in a press conference responding to the plans that while he welcomes the ambition to grow the surface fleet, he called the plan “superficial and has serious flaws.”
“There is no larger strategy. There is no urgency in the government’s timeline. The money is mostly outside the Forward Estimates and into the next decade. We won’t see a ship in the water until 2031—assuming this plan stays to timeline…We still don’t have a defense strategy from this government, nor an indication of how this surface fleet investment would be integrated into an Australia maritime defense strategy,” Hastie said.
He noted under this plan the Hunter-class frigates will not start to enter the Royal Australian Navy until 2024, with general purpose frigates starting in 2031.