Page 28 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec19-Jan20

28 DEFENCE BUSINESS PACIFIC
DECEMBER 2019 – JANUARY 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
ROYAL NAVY SHIPBUILDING RENAISSANCE
NIGEL PITTAWAY | SYDNEY
THE UK’s shipyards are enjoying a renaissance period, as the Royal Navy seeks to recapitalise its surface combatant fleet after what has arguably been decades of austerity.
As at October, both the RN’s new 65,000 tonne Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers were at sea, steel has been cut on the first two of eight Type 26 ASW frigates in Scot- land, a preferred bidder (Babcock) has been selected to build the Type 31 General Purpose Frigates and five ‘Batch 2’ Off- shore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) are now entering service.
The Royal Navy is also due to deploy a carrier task group to the Indo-Pacific region in 2021, marking the first time it has projected naval power in any great depth ‘East of Suez’ in many years.
The Type 26 is a variant of BAE Systems’ Global Combat Ship (GCS) design, which has of course also been selected by Australia (Hunter class) and Canada (Canadian Combat Ship, or CSC). The Type 31 will be Babcock’s Arrowhead 140 design, based on the proven Iver Huitfeldt class frigates currently in service with the Royal Danish Navy.
With a healthy ship design capability in place, the UK Government has not been slow to consider the significant export potential the frigates (in particular) bring with them. Japan, for example, is looking to acquire a high-end
ASW warship in the future, Chile has expressed an inter- est for either the Type 31 and/or ex-RN Type 23 frigates as they come out of service. Further down the track, NZ will seek a replacement for its two Anzac frigates in the 2030s and way out further, both the RAN and RN will need an air warfare vessel to replace their Hobart AWDs and Type 45s respectively.
With all this in mind, a senior team from the UK’s De- partment for International Trade Defence and Security Or- ganisation, led by Director Mark Goldsack, was present at Pacific 2019 and keen to talk not only about further export potential, but also about establishing closer ties between UK and Australian industries.
“As we’ve reached out to our partners, we’re able to iden- tify ways of working that aren’t the traditional export model. None of the big stuff we’re involved in actually sits on export- ing large chunks of metal anymore, we need to put genuine investment in the host economy,” Goldsack said.
“We’re talking about an eco-system that actually gives you Intellectual Property, that actually gives you a design capa- bility, that actually gives you an advanced manufacturing ca- pability, rather than seeing it as a ‘clip together’ model, where you pass lower levels of construction around the system.” ■
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