Frigate arrives in Australia as Tokyo bids for defence deal
A Japanese warship has arrived in Australia as part of a high-stakes campaign to secure a US$6.5bil (RM27.5bil) contract to build the country's next fleet of general-purpose frigates.
The JS Yahagi, a Mogami-class stealth frigate, is docked in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory in a symbolic and strategic move aimed at strengthening defence ties with Australia.
Japan's bid, led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was short-listed in November for the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) SEA 3000 frigate project – competing against Germany's rival offer.
Australia is expected to select a preferred design later this year, with construction for 11 new vessels to begin the following year.
Japan would jointly develop and produce the frigates for the RAN.
Japan is pushing to strengthen its domestic defence industry by participating in joint development, including a next-generation fighter jet with Britain and Italy, and promoting foreign sales like the Mogami-class ships.
In a sign of its commitment and investment Japan has pledged to prioritise the RAN's order over its own naval procurement.
The Mogami-class boasts advanced combat systems, anti-submarine and anti-air warfare capabilities and mine countermeasure operations – all operated by a lean crew of around 90, helping to address recruitment challenges in the RAN.
The vessel's commanding officer, Tamura Masayoshi, said the ship's smaller crew was an aim of the Mogami-class ship.
'The Japanese Maritime Self-defence Force thought we need stealth, and less people, and a little bit smaller ship,' Masayoshi told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. — AP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
29 minutes ago
- The Star
While AI gains ground, traditional search engines still have a place, say experts
Has artificial intelligence (AI) changed the way we interact with the digital world, and more importantly, have old systems and principles become irrelevant with the advent of AI? Those questions took centre stage during the Malaysia Digital Association (MDA) D-Conference 2025 on June 12, which brought speakers from across various industries to discuss the intersection between technology and creativity. A panel discussion titled "AI vs Search: Reinventing Discovery Or Breaking The System" explored the impact of AI on how people find information online. US-based web advertising company Taboola's regional director for India and South-East Asia, Aaron Rigby, highlights fragmentation across generational lines regarding the use of "search". He observes that older users are sticking to traditional search engines and research behaviour, while those from younger generations are relying on platforms like TikTok when searching for information. Rigby says that despite advances in AI chatbots, search engines are not going anywhere. — RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/The Star With the rise of chatbots and AI integration in search results, Rigby sees them taking a complementary role to one another. "Firstly, is AI going to replace search? No, I don't think so. It's pretty much reimagining search. "Google still receives 370 times the number of queries that AI chatbots are receiving. "Of all the people using ChatGPT, 99% of them, which is another way of saying 100% with a rounding error, are still using Google search, so it's not going anywhere," he says. The shift, Rigby says, will be in how users interact with both chatbots and search engines. He believes that both will have their respective roles to play in developing distinct workflows and splitting up the search process. For example, when aiming for more thorough and complex questions that require context, users are opting for AI assistance to get the answers they are looking for, he says. Meanwhile, when it comes to simpler, quickfire answers, they go straight to Google, he adds. "I think as we move forward, it's not going to replace, it's going to converge and evolve in an interesting way," he says. Vinda Malaysia's head of media, business intelligence and data Neeraj Mishra, on the other hand, touched on the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence when compared with traditional organic search results. Neeraj says that just a short two years ago, he would not have trusted the accuracy of results obtained from AI. Since then, however, he has seen rapid improvements and developments in the various AI platforms. Neeraj says that just a short two years ago, he would not have trusted the accuracy of results obtained from AI. — RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/The Star "I'll take a specific example: initially when ChatGPT launched, it was not connected to the Internet. "I'm not sure whether the results it gives me are correct or not, so I have to go to Google to confirm it. "But now, what happens is, within ChatGPT, it is connected to the Internet, and when you search, your search results also comes with the source. "Then what happens is, I can verify that it then and there whether the results are okay or not," he says, adding that he no longer needs to manually cross-check information from chatbots. He stresses that users now need to make sure to feed their chatbots well-worded and accurate prompts in order to receive high quality, trustworthy, and verified responses. "If you are using it and your prompts are good enough, the result you will get is reliable, trustworthy, and can be verified too. "But if your prompts are not accurate, the outcome will not be good," he says. Neeraj further stresses that it now falls on the user to ensure the quality of their prompts, rather than the blame falling on chatbots like ChatGPT. From an ethical perspective, Rigby says that the biggest challenge is in creative attribution. "AI is coming back with good results, and that is not being attributed to the publishers, and not being attributed to the creative industry. "So, if we continue down this way, we're essentially strip mining the very industry that AI is built for, right? "And then we'll have an AI which is fueled by nothing. So, from an ethical standpoint, it's so important we have to get this creative attribution right," he says. The human touch Another presentation given by Peter Kua, co-founder of AI consulting firm Data Science, titled "The AI takeover: Is UX as we know it over", discussed how humans are a necessary element in the design of user experience (UX). He emphasises that humans are the ones responsible for the inclusion of empathy and creativity in UX design. "The reality is that AI cannot replace human programmers. I mean, sure, AI is able to solve simple hackathon types of problems. It's also able to generate code snippets that you can cut and paste into your work. "But the real world is a lot more complex than that," he says, adding that AI fails miserably at addressing complex business problems and at figuring out current and legacy systems. The conference also included discussions on whether AI represents a boon or bane for creative works, the future of advertising in an AI era, and authenticity in a synthetic world, among others. Following the conference was the D-Awards 2025 ceremony, celebrating innovations in the creative space the past year.
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
Chinese jets fly as close as 45 metres to Japanese patrol planes in Pacific
TOKYO/BEIJING: Chinese fighter jets flew unusually close to Japanese military patrol planes over the Pacific last weekend, Tokyo said, after it spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers simultaneously deployed in the waters for the first time. While Beijing said its military activities were "fully in line with international law" and asked Japan to stop its "dangerous" reconnaissance, Japanese and US officials have seen the jets' actions as another sign of the Chinese military's growing assertiveness beyond its borders. Tokyo has "expressed serious concern ... and solemnly requested prevention of recurrence" to Beijing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Thursday, referring to the June 7–8 incidents in which Japan said Chinese jets flew as close as 45 metres (148 feet) to Japanese planes. On Saturday, a Chinese J-15 jet from the aircraft carrier Shandong chased a Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft for about 40 minutes, Japan's defence ministry said. On Sunday, a J-15 chased a P-3C for 80 minutes, crossing in front of the Japanese aircraft at a distance of only 900 metres, it added. A spokesperson at the ministry's Joint Staff Office declined to disclose whether the same planes were involved in the incidents on both days. The P-3C aircraft, belonging to a Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force fleet based on the island of Okinawa, were conducting surveillance over international waters in the Pacific, according to the ministry. "Such abnormal approaches by Chinese military aircraft could potentially cause accidental collisions," the ministry said in a Wednesday statement, attaching close-up images of the missile-armed J-15 jet it took on Sunday. There was no damage to the Japanese planes and crew, it added. In response, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference that "the close-in reconnaissance by Japanese ships and planes of China's normal military activities is the root cause of the risk to maritime and air security. "The Chinese side urges the Japanese side to stop such dangerous behaviour." Earlier this week, Tokyo said the Shandong and another Chinese carrier, the Liaoning, were conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time. Beijing has said the operations were a "routine training" exercise that did not target specific countries. The Chinese presence in the sea and airspace in the southeast of the Japanese island chain has put Tokyo and its ally Washington on heightened alert, as Japan pursues its biggest military build-up since World War Two in the wake of the intensifying security environment in East Asia, including over Taiwan. "Our sense of urgency is growing," General Yoshihide Yoshida, Chief of Staff of Japan's Joint Staff, told a briefing. "As evident in the South China Sea, the Chinese military has unilaterally changed the status quo through force wherever their military influence extends ... we will maintain a deterrent posture not to allow these actions normalised," added Yoshida, Japan's highest-ranking uniformed officer. "The recent dangerous manoeuvre by a Chinese fighter jet that put Japanese crewmembers' lives in peril must be another of Beijing's 'good neighbour' efforts," US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said in an X post. "Whether it's harassing Philippine ships, attacking Vietnamese fishermen, or firing flares at Australian aircraft, Beijing knows only reckless aggression," Glass added, citing recent incidents in the South China Sea. In 2014, Tokyo said it spotted Chinese military aircraft flying as close as 30 metres to its military aircraft over the East China Sea and protested to Beijing.
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Indonesia's Prabowo to meet Putin for talks in Russia
Putin greeting Prabowo Subianto in this file photo during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 31, 2024. - AFP JAKARTA: Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto will meet counterpart Vladimir Putin this month on his first visit to Russia since taking office, officials said on Thursday (June 12), as South-East Asia's biggest economy seeks to boost ties with Moscow. Jakarta maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in the competition between Washington and Beijing, but Prabowo has touted stronger relations with Moscow. He will visit Russia from June 18-20 to hold talks with Putin and attend an economic forum in Saint Petersburg, where he will deliver a speech, foreign ministry spokesman Rolliansyah Soemirat told reporters. "The president and a limited number of delegates are scheduled to visit St Petersburg, Russia, on June 18-20. This visit is to fulfil the invitation from the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to a bilateral meeting," Rolliansyah said. "The bilateral meeting is expected to discuss the development of bilateral cooperation, as well as a discussion between leaders on the regional and global issues that become a common concern," he said. Prabowo will visit Singapore on Monday to attend a leaders' retreat, where he will meet the country's prime minister and president, before flying to Russia, Rolliansyah said. Presidential spokesman Philips Vermonte also confirmed the planned trips to AFP. Prabowo visited Putin in Moscow last year before being inaugurated as Indonesia's new president in October, calling Russia a "great friend". The two nations held their first joint naval drills on Java island in November and Prabowo later hosted top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu for talks in the capital Jakarta. Prabowo has pledged to be bolder on the world stage compared to his predecessor Joko Widodo. Jakarta has billion-dollar trade ties with Moscow, yet major arms imports have stalled in recent years after Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in 2022. However, since becoming defence minister in 2019, Prabowo has kept alive a US$1.1 billion Russian fighter jet deal agreed a year earlier, despite the reported threat of US sanctions. - AFP
