Four billion for a frigate?

The Australian Hunter-class frigate programme: Costs out of control?

The Australian Hunter-class frigate programme is facing a financial crisis. The planned nine ships have been reduced to six, but the costs are rising dramatically and are beyond the original budget. The Australian Hunter-class frigate programme is increasingly spiralling out of control as construction costs continue to rise. Australia's future "Global Combat Ship", the Hunter-class frigates, are based on the Type 26 developed in the UK by BAE Systems. These ships were intended to be one of the most efficient combat vessels in the world, but the budget planning is getting increasingly out of control. The budget had earmarked 2.5 billion euros per ship - a sum that was considered comfortable. But the Australian Hunter-class frigate programme has now far exceeded the planned expenditure.

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Due to a change in strategy in view of the growing Pacific threat from China, Australia reduced the order to six units. At the same time, the government included eleven smaller, less expensive multi-purpose frigates in its plans. However, by early 2024, Australia had already spent more than half of the original budget on the development and initial construction of the Hunter frigates. Now another tranche of almost the same size has had to be added - meaning that a total of already 25 billion euros for the six remaining frigates.

Four billion euros per frigate - too expensive?

These massive costs raise questions. For comparison:

• One American Constellation class-frigate costs under 2 billion euros
• One French FTI frigate lies with 1 billion euros
• The German F126 is priced somewhere in between

And all these frigates need not fear comparison with the Hunter class. Is the Australian marine programme getting out of hand?

The cost-intensive Australian-British-American SSN-AUKUS submarine construction programme with eight units (three Virginia boats, five new developments) is estimated to cost around 230 billion euros not even taken into account.

Australia and the Hunter-class frigate programme: No criticism?

Despite this immense government spending, there is hardly any protest. The Australian public does not seem to be interested in the high costs.

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