{"id":19427,"date":"2015-03-31T15:14:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T04:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=19427"},"modified":"2015-03-31T21:49:26","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T10:49:26","slug":"highlights-from-aspis-future-surface-fleet-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/highlights-from-aspis-future-surface-fleet-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlights from ASPI\u2019s Future Surface Fleet: day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>ASPI\u2019s Future Surface Fleet Conference<\/a> kicked off this morning, with major speeches reflecting a range of positions and political debate. Opening the conference, ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings lamented the hardline politics of shipbuilding in Australia and offered five objectives\u00a0to help\u00a0frame decisions regarding Australia\u2019s future frigate fleet: to\u00a0make a decision based on\u00a0Australia’s strategic need; to be cognisant of Australia’s changing strategic environment; take the heat out of domestic politics; for industry to engage government on industry’s role; and to think about integration challenges across the ADF and with friends and allies. He was followed by Minister for Defence Kevin Andrews, who today has given a more detailed roadmap of the government\u2019s thinking on naval ship building\u2014in particular, on the future of the\u00a0SEA 5000 project. Here are some of the key points from his speech:<\/p>\n

Future Surface Fleet Capabilities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrews outlined the prospective capabilities of the future frigates, emphasising that:<\/p>\n

\u2018The Future Frigates are expected to face more demanding operational requirements and will need to be more capable than the ANZAC class. They will be required to conduct a range of missions, from low-level constabulary roles through to regional conflict, but with a particular focus on anti-submarine warfare and theatre-level anti-submarine operations.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the Minister, operations along Australia\u2019s coastline and in the Indo-Pacific will require Australia\u2019s future frigate to \u2018have the range, endurance, sea-keeping qualities, survivability and weapons load-out to support prolonged operations throughout our substantial region and, when called to do so, globally\u2019\u2014which will include offensive, defensive and self-protection systems.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Valley of Death\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrews reiterated that the Valley of Death\u2014a theme in last week\u2019s Submarine Summit in Adelaide\u2014as being unavoidable and unstoppable. Andrews stated that, although the Valley is inevitable, there are ways to lessen its impact. These included the government focusing on other projects that\u2019ll create opportunities in the Australian shipbuilding industry:<\/p>\n

\u2018A fleet of Offshore Patrol Vessels to replace the Armidale<\/em>-class patrol boats, and the Australian manufacture of up to 21 Pacific Patrol Boats under the Pacific Maritime Security Program.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In response, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence David Feeney stated that by admitting that the inevitable loss of skills and jobs in the Australian shipbuilding industry, Andrews had \u2018thrown up the white flag\u2019 on bridging the Valley of Death.<\/p>\n

Naval shipbuilding in Australia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrews also spoke on the future of naval shipbuilding in Australia, stating that Australia is in the \u2018early stages of an ambitious program to procure up to 40 naval surface ships and submarines over the next two decades\u2019. He furthered on this by stating that an \u2018enterprise-level naval shipbuilding plan is currently being developed to provide for the long-term future of the Australian naval shipbuilding industry\u2019\u2014and that one of these options is the feasibility of a \u2018continuous build strategy.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to Andrews, Australian taxpayers pay a \u2018price premium\u2019 that is at least 30 to 40% greater than US benchmarks to build naval ships in Australia, and thus, that \u2018the price premium was too high to make good economic sense\u2019, and \u2018too high to enable a continuous build strategy to be adopted\u2019 in the absence of a big lift in productivity. In contrast, Feeney expressed his concerns about the numbers of Australian employed in the shipbuilding industry falling dramatically by 2016 should the continuous build strategy not being adopted.<\/p>\n

Andrews reiterated throughout his speech that the Coalition doesn\u2019t want to see the Australian naval shipbuilding industry disappear, with further details to this effect to be provided in the upcoming naval shipbuilding plan and the 2015 Defence White Paper\u2014the latter document to include more details on the commencement of construction, the rate at which construction will take place and the structure of the industry that will be required to support this program. Rather than postulating on the possibility of an Australian build like Andrews, Feeney stated that his firm belief in an Australian build had foundations in history, that is, \u2018we have done it before\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, both politicians reiterated the importance of a modern fleet in the context of Asia-Pacific geopolitics, with Feeney referencing the Antarctic and the Asia-Pacific, and Andrews asserting that by 2030, approximately 300 submarines are expected to be operating in the Indo-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

To engage with other debates across the two days of the ASPI Future Surface Fleet conference, be sure to follow ASPI on Twitter at @ASPI_org<\/a> and use the conference hashtag #FSFleet15<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASPI\u2019s Future Surface Fleet Conference kicked off this morning, with major speeches reflecting a range of positions and political debate. Opening the conference, ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings lamented the hardline politics of shipbuilding in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":19430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[833,1157,1206,100,579],"class_list":["post-19427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-frigate","tag-future-surface-fleet","tag-kevin-andrews","tag-minister-for-defence","tag-shipbuilding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHighlights from ASPI\u2019s Future Surface Fleet: day 1 | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/highlights-from-aspis-future-surface-fleet-day-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Highlights from ASPI\u2019s Future Surface Fleet: day 1 | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ASPI\u2019s Future Surface Fleet Conference kicked off this morning, with major speeches reflecting a range of positions and political debate. 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