Congratulations to Japan and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for their success in being selected as the supplier of General Purpose Frigates under SEA 3000. The attractive features of the Japanese ship are well known – stealth characteristics, high levels of automation, a fixed-face radar array and 32 VLS cells. However, this was followed by a deceitful background briefing by senior Australian figures that was full of provable untruths. This included information suggesting that the losing bid from German supplier TKMS was inflated by Defence using the false pretext that it came with a different set of weapons. No it did not.
Without any evidence, Defence had also concluded that TKMS could not meet the schedule when there is ample evidence that they could do so without difficulty. One wonders why a competition even took place when the outcome looks predetermined. Then there’s more misleading information from Defence Minister Richard Marles who continues to insist incorrectly that Australia has already reviewed the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine decision. And once again it looks like US President Donald Trump is getting ready to sell out Ukraine.
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Thanks, Kym. Certainly never boring!
The RAN has finally made a decision. The first Mogami is scheduled to be delivered in four years from now. It is three and a quarter years into the tenure of the current Minister of Defence. In other words, it will take almost as long to make a procurement decision as the build-out of the first of an entirely new class of ship.
The RAN must have known for at least five years that the ANZAC class was in trouble. Commissioning Mk2 ANZAC back in 2022 would have seen a minimal change upgrade path and the likelihood of a smooth replacement in capability.
It was known in 2019 that the ANZACs were rapidly running out of life.
Actually the day they cut first steel for the ANZAC class they would have been aware that these ships would need to be replaced themselves by the mid 2020s. Way back in 2009 the White Paper set out plans to replace them and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it for another decade.
Big problem as I see it is that any decision making by any government is pretty much determined by the next election cycle. For any long term decisions the can is simply kicked further down the road.
Through decades of winning elections via making promises of short term sugar hits our politicians and the electorate have become conditioned to short term thinking.
Breaking this mode of thought would take politicians with courage and the ability to think long term.
It would also need the electorate to realise that the short term sugar hits need to be paid for long term.
I don’t see either of those changes happening.
I see the issue getting worse and worse.
If we keep voting on the basis of a tax cut in the next 12 months or a couple of hundred dollars of “cost of living” relief we’re dooming this country to ongoing deterioration
We are not helped by a combination of the 3 year Federal election cycle combined with politicians lacking vision.
“I heard a senior RAN person say ‘We can trust you because your offer is backed by the Japanese government, but we can’t trust a private supplier”
Hmmm…following that rationale, begs the question how RAN could see fit to betray the Japanese government’s trust over the Soryu then the French government’s trust over the Barracuda.
Give it time. There’s still plenty of scope after a change of RAN leadership to scrap SEA 3000 in favor of something else.
Nothing would surprise me from a mob of morons (Albo included) who according to PJ Keating ignored Macron’s counter offer of SSN Barracudas at a fixed price. Boats that delivered the best of both worlds, sized for littoral ops, designed with special forces & drone ops in mind, unlimited vessel endurance, all with a comfortably accommodated crew of just 65.
Canceling Barracuda truly surpasses burying Taipan on the how to sabotage Australia’s national security in one foul swoop index.
AUKUS isn’t about acquiring nuclear-powered submarines – it’s a return to the comfort of the Anglosphere where everyone talks, looks and thinks the same way.
Indeed, some folks just can’t stomach the notion of an ASIAN superpower…
One winner in all of this is BAE. There was plenty of shenanigans earlier with them an support to MHI. That got stopped, at least it appeared so on the outside. Given that Austal will struggle to even be ready for a Mogami local build and should anything happen to reduce Hunter, then guess where the local build could be. A bigger threat to BAE would have been the German experience of delivering local builds and getting Austal up to speed. In this regard, MHI has zero experience. And now too it is abundantly clear to all, that there was one set of metrics to which the Japanese bid was being measured and one for the German bid. Why could the latter not offer the version of Meko as displayed at the last IndoPac? It had comparable firepower to the upgraded Mogami and just as much sea-provenness given its lineage from the older and offered version. Best of luck to the RAN in making it happen with MHI. In the valley of the blind, the one eye man is King.
I agree with all of that, and I’ll have a bit more to say shortly about how Defence cooked the books. The Mogami is an excellent ship but Defence went out of their way – with the full complicity of the government – to smear TKMS. Different rules were applied to the two bidders.
I’m completely at a loss why anyone thought that anybody but Japan was going to win. Right from the start the Mogami was the ship of choice, the obsession with secrecy, the altering of design conditions the list is endless, all in favour of MHI plus it suits the U.S. as They are closer allies (well, less likely to get screwed) than Germany, who has had the temerity to speak for itself. As for the Press conference, off course they didn’t want you there,I would wager any Journalist with similar views to you were excluded as well, Gods forbid they have to answer any unscripted Questions. The axe job on TKMS was a shock but not unexpected, one only has to remember what they did to Luerssen. The selection process was a farce and the powers that be had to justify their choice as best they could and this Government has always chosen to belittle rather than be honest. I await the announcement that because of time constraints, all 11 Frigates will be built in Japan.
A very timely and accurate comment. I’ll elaborate further in my next podcast and in the September edition of APDR. Undoubtedly, the books were cooked on the issue of the MEKO 200 price – just in a far more shameful way than even I had anticipated.
One can only hope that all 11 are built in Japan.
That’s the only way we’ll get them anywhere near budget in terms of cost and schedule.
Austal building anything like a Mogami is a pipe dream.
I just pity MHI having to deal with DoD and RAN personnel wanting to “assist”