• An industry source has described the General Purpose Frigate project as a “goat rodeo”, but before we get to that a few words about the cancellation of SEA 1905. This was the latest RAN effort to improve mine warfare capabilities – and after 5 years of effort on the part of three bidders has been abruptly cancelled. No reason has been given but it looks to be because Australia will soon transfer $4.7 billion to profitable US submarine construction companies. However, mine warfare is a vital capability, particularly if you hope to operate nuclear-powered submarines. A few words about the IIP – and the big takeaway is that funding is only available for the new submarines and general purpose frigates. This means Navy will receive 38% of the acquisition budget – more than Army, RAAF and Cyber combined. Finally the Luerssen corvette offer – and someone has to find out why it was apparently ignored by the Independent Review into the surface fleet. It’s the only way of rapidly delivering capability with all ships constructed at Henderson with an existing Australian supply chain giving 80% local content.

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