Australia's future "Global Combat Ship", the Hunter-class frigates, planned with nine units of the Type 26 under construction in the UK at BAE Systems, but built and equipped in Australia by local industry, were to be one of the most efficient combat ships in the world. The budget provided for 2.5 billion euros per ship - which can certainly be described as comfortable in terms of financial planning. Due to a change in strategy in view of the Pacific threat from China, the nine ships were reduced to six, but an additional eleven smaller, cheaper multi-purpose frigates were included in the plan. However, by the beginning of 2024, more than half of the planned amount had already been spent down under on the development and initial construction of the Hunter frigates and a next tranche of almost the same size now had to be added financially. This means that 25 billion euros are already on the books for the remaining six Hunters.
Four billion euros per frigate? Pumping that much surplus into the development of national industry can be risky. An American Constellation-class newbuilding frigate costs less than 2 billion euros, a French FTI 1 billion, and a German F126 somewhere in between - and they don't need to shy away from comparison with the Hunter class in any way. Something is getting out of hand here - and that's without even mentioning the Australian-British-American SSN-AUKUS submarine construction programme with eight units (3 Virginia boats, 5 new developments) costing an estimated 230 billion euros!
The beauty of it is that the Australian public is not the least bit interested in such government spending.
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Not a very well informed article. The costing includes a major renovation of the shipyard in Australia, operating costs over the life of the program, a 30% buffer for exchange rate changes, the integration of the Australian CEAFAR radar, the extension of the skills workforce and the entire cost of them for the program. The cost of each ship is a minor cost when compared to the whole continuous shipbuilding project.
Thank you for your well informed commentary. However – all your points have been mentioned in the article. We did not say, the bare ship would cost that much. It’s the big picture – in a nutshell. If you would like to provide a full blown piece on how Australia has constructed the „Hunter“-program and will control it – please be my guest. We are always eager to publish various aspects on maritime issues.
You have zero knowledge of maritime affairs
the term shadow fleet is total rubbish!
Many thanks for the valuable comment - you must obviously know better!
The editorial team
The Turks are building 4 destroyers for themselves for 4 billion. Many Australians are probably filling their pockets.