Latest news with #HunterClass
Perth Now
05-08-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
Japan beats rival for $10bn Aus deal
Japan has beaten Germany in a bid to build Australia's new $10bn frigate fleet, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has announced. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build 11 Mogami-class, which will form the foundation of Australia's attack warships. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has confirmed Japan will build Australia's new $10bn frigate fleet. NewsWire / Philip Gostelow Credit: News Corp Australia 'This decision represents the biggest capability acquisition decision that the government has made since announcing the optimal pathway to acquiring our future submarine capability back in March of 2023,' Mr Marles told reporters at Parliament House. 'When our government came to office, we inherited the oldest surface combatant fleet that the navy had been operating since the end of the Second World War. 'And there were no plans to introduce a new surface combatant into service until 2034, which would be the first of the Hunter Class vessels.' More to come.
Sky News AU
01-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Japan gives iron clad guarantee to deliver new multi-purpose frigate fleet to Australian Navy
The Japanese government has given an iron clad guarantee that it can deliver a fleet of new multi-purpose frigates on time and on budget as it hopes to convince Canberra that can be trusted with a landmark defence acquisition. A senior official from Japan's Ministry of Defense, Dr Osamu Nishiwaki, sought to allay often repeated concerns that his country hadn't exported military hardware of this size of scale under its pacificist constitution. A factor that its German opposition had declared made it a risk. 'We the Japanese government will guarantee that the whole project, and all the contracts will go smoothly. So that there will not be any delay to the project,' Dr Nishiwaki told Sky News. 'The Japanese government will take care of the whole project so that it will succeed.' The declaration was repeated ensuring the message wasn't missed in Canberra. 'We can definitely guarantee the on-time delivery. That's the huge difference between us and our competitors (TKMS))' The Royal Australian Navy is hamstrung with a fleet that's too small, badly outdated and seriously under-gunned. Australia's Hunter Class frigates will arrive years late and billions of dollars overbudget. Its six capable Collins Class submarines need replacing. It's three front line Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers require updates that could take them out of the water for years. While its seven remaining ANZAC Class frigates have begun to be decommissioned. With the Indo-Pacific becoming more contested, Defence's independent analysis recommends Australia acquire a fleet of 'Tier two' general purpose frigates capable of guarding sea lanes, ports and merchant ships in a speedy project known as Sea 3000. Unusually for Australia, the first of three ships will be built overseas by the winning tender, with the maiden vessel in service and in Australian hands by 2029. After the first three, eight further vessels will be constructed at Henderson shipyards in West Australia in a collaboration between the foreign construction company and a sovereign Australian shipbuilder. Five bids have been whittled down to two. Japan is offering its next generation Mogami FFM frigate. While respected German shipbuilder TKMS is offering its MEKO A210 – a multi-general advance on Australia's ANZAC Frigates on which the Aussie ship was previously modelled in the 1980s. Both nations offer degrees of security and risk. Japan, for its lack of military exports, has constructed 11 Mogami frigates in just six years and has begun cutting steel for its larger and more potent 'FFM' model which Australia is interested in. The Japanese frigate requires 90 crew, fewer than its competitor at 120. It also offers a degree of stealth and critical 32 Vertical Launch Systems from which it can fire and intercept missiles - four times more than our ANZAC class. TKMS originally pitched its A200 model to Defence with 16 VLS cells. Described as the 'Workhorse of the sea,' the modular ship is in operation with Egypt, Algeria and South Africa. Under-gunned compared to the Mogami FFM, Sky News has been told that defence has agreed to also consider a beefed-up TKMS version known as the A210. It has been designed but not constructed and will feature 32 VLS cells and a Directed Energy weapon (DEW laser). Burned by the Hunter class fiasco, Australian officials want a ship with minimal changes. That, however, will mean accepting international standards which could for instance mean smaller spaces, corridors and quarters. When Sky asked about potential changes, it was told the matter 'depends on the Australian government,' Dr Nishiwaki said. 'If (the) Australian government thinks they need some change, certainly Mitsubishi Heavy Industry can do that. 'And we also try to remind you MHI used to be together with Mitsubishi Motors and they have experience of manufacturing in Australia in past days. So, I'm sure they can adjust to such a request if that happens from the Australian government.' Bullish, Japanese officials are confident they can meet dates because they have already factored construction demands into their schedule – delivering Australia a ship that would otherwise go to its own nation's maritime self-defence force. 'We can guarantee there will be no delay for the upgraded Mogami to be provided to the Australian navy if chosen because we have already planned to build them.' Dr Nishiwaki said. 'We strongly believe that this time Australia will choose us as a partner for this project.' What Japan is really offering though is increased cooperation and ties between Tokyo and Canberra. 'We don't think we will do something similar of this type of defence export to some other countries who are not as Australia is for us.' The status of forces agreement provides the potential for either nation to service military ships in times of crisis. 'Australia is quite a special country to us. Not just in security area but if you look into overall relationship of Japan and Australia. It's a very long history.' It's said that behind America, Japan's second most important relationship is with Australia, showing how far the two nation's have come since the World War II and the small matter in 2016 when Canberra shelved the idea of buying Japanese submarines in favour of French boats, only to later scrap the idea in favour of AUKUS. Investigations Reporter. Jonathan is travelling as guest of the Japanese government and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries while in Japan covering this story
9 News
13-06-2025
- Business
- 9 News
Expert says Australia's 'chronically over-budget' warship project should be scrapped
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Chronically over-budget, significantly delayed and lacking firepower - that's the expert assessment of a major warship project they say should be scrapped. The Hunter Class frigate project is already seven years behind schedule and many billions of dollars more expensive than initially anticipated. In 2018, British company BAE Systems won a $35 billion tender to build nine frigates, or $3.8 billion each, with the first scheduled to be in service by 2027. Australia's next Hunter-class frigates will be based on this British design. (Nine) By 2020 the price tag had blown out to $45 billion or $5 billion a piece, and Defence is now estimating it will cost $27 billion to build just frigates, or $9 billion each, with the first to be in service by 2034 - seven years late. BAE Systems is the company that will build Australia's AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines. Strategic Analysis Australia director Michael Shoebridge said the Hunter Class project was the "high point of decadence" in Defence decision-making. He said Defence adjusted the original BAE British design with a series of add-ons, including different combat and radar systems - which made it massively more expensive. "That frigate program is beyond scandalous - It's entered ludicrous mode for a wasteful use of taxpayer money and a very slow, small contribution to Australian military power," Shoebridge said. Australia's next Hunter-class frigates will be based on this British design. (Nine) He said the Hunter had just 32 missiles, which was a third of the weaponry of the Chinese cruiser that circumnavigated Australia in March. "We're in a very dangerous world and a very dangerous period in the world, and waiting to the mid-2030s and into the 2040s for three frigates for this amount of money, makes no sense. "We could go to the Japanese or the South Koreans and get a properly armed cruiser much faster than BAE is delivering this program." Defence analyst Dr Marcus Hellyer was equally scathing of the Hunter frigate, saying Navy's adjustments to the design had not only significantly increased its cost, but the frigate's weight, taking it from 8000 tonnes to more than 10,000 tonnes, making it slower. "It is monstrously expensive," Hellyer said. "And I would say, if you're in a hole, stop digging. "The government itself has decided it can't wait for the Hunter Class frigate, so it has kicked off a new frigate program and it is considering a competition between a German design and a Japanese design. "So the government itself has pretty much said we need to do something different - in a sense, they're halfway there already." Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the Hunter frigate project would not be cut despite its problems. "I wish I had a time machine to go back to 2016 and avoid the mistakes that the Coalition government made, but we've moved on," Conroy said. "We've got the project on track. Steel is being cut right now, we've signed the contract, there are about 2500 people working on this project right now. "The fastest way of delivering new capability for the Royal Australian Navy, is following through on this, building this project, now that we've fixed up many of the mistakes the Coalition government made." navy Australia defence national CONTACT US Auto news:Is this the next Subaru WRX? Mysterious performance car teased.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Prediction: 12 months from now, the BAE share price could turn £5,000 into…
With most stocks taking a tumble in recent weeks, the BAE Systems (LSE:BA.) share price seems to be an exception. The British aerospace and defence business has seen its valuation surge by over 35% since 2025 kicked off. And looking at the latest analyst forecasts, this upward trajectory could continue over the next 12 months. Just over half the institutional analysts following this enterprise currently have a Buy or Outperform recommendation on BAE shares. And it's not exactly difficult to see why. Amid growing geopolitical tensions worldwide, the company posted a record order backlog valued at £77.8bn – an £8bn increase versus 2023. This was predominantly driven by renewed demand for its Hunter Class frigates in Australia, CV90 combat vehicles in Denmark and Sweden, along with 25 and 24 new Typhoon aircraft orders for the Spanish and Italian Air Forces respectively. Combined, this surge in orders translated into a 14% boost in revenue and underlying operating profits. Free cash flow did underperform by comparison, coming in essentially flat year-on-year at £2.5bn. However, that's still significantly larger than the £1.5bn management was aiming for courtesy of higher-than-expected customer advanced payments paired with 'strong operational cash conversion'. What's more, demand's expected to continue growing as Europe begins to ramp up its defence spending. So with all that in mind, it's not entirely surprising that one analyst expected the BAE Systems share price to rise to as high as 2,450p over the next 12 months. That's a 58% potential increase from today's valuation, suggesting that a £5,000 initial investment could grow to £7,903 by this time next year. The prospect of making just over £2,900 over the next year is understandably exciting. However, it's important to remember that forecasts aren't set in stone. Furthermore, this outlook's the most optimistic among analysts. And when taking the average of all current projections, the BAE share price is expected to reach just 1,540p. That's roughly in line with where shares are trading right now. This implies that all the expected growth from higher EU spending and order growth has already been baked into the stock price. Another risk that seems to be going ignored is the potential for a cut to the US defence budget. Suppose Europe is more capable of defending itself. In that case, America may be able to achieve some cost savings within the military to fund proposed tax cuts as well as pay down the national debt. And with almost half of BAE's revenue stream coming from across the pond, growth could stall as defence spending redistributes from one country to another. Nevertheless, BAE's substantial order book should keep it busy for many years to come. And even at current levels, the valuation on a forward price-to-earnings basis is a fairly reasonable 21, behind the European industry average of 25.8. As such, while investors aren't getting a massive bargain, BAE shares could merit further research by those seeking exposure to the aerospace and defence industry. The post Prediction: 12 months from now, the BAE share price could turn £5,000 into… appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool Zaven Boyrazian has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended BAE Systems. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025 Sign in to access your portfolio
