Confidence in Navy’s Hunter-class frigate program is growing as prototype construction work continues and blocks are consolidated at BAE Systems Maritime Australia’s shipyard in Osborne, South Australia.
Speaking to media at the shipyard at the end of August, both the shipbuilder and Commonwealth representatives expressed satisfaction in ship design and prototyping work undertaken so far and predict that the first ship may possibly be handed over to Navy slightly earlier than the 2031 deadline.
Their comments come as BAE Systems announced that the first steel prototype ‘blocks’ – Block 16 – has been constructed in the Osborne yard and work is continuing on the second and third blocks.
The prototyping work is being done to train shipyard workers and refine manufacturing and shipyard processes ahead of the first steel being cut in 2024. The first two blocks being built are to the UK Type 26 design – without any of the Hunter-specific changes – and after completion will be used for training and firefighting systems certification. The final three blocks will be to the Australian Hunter-class design and it is the intention to repurpose them for the Navy’s first ship.
For the first time since the previous Defence Minister left office, Deputy Secretary of National Naval Shipbuilding Tony Dalton and First Assistant Secretary Ships Sheryl Lutz, were permitted to speak with media representatives and answered a range of questions about the Hunter design and construction process.
From the shipbuilder’s perspective, BAE Systems Maritime Australia’s Managing Director Craig Lockhart said that the quality being achieved in the Osborne yard was well above that expected, despite a schedule which will see steel being cut on the real ships slightly later than originally planned.
“One of the reasons we held back was to allow the [UK] Type 26 to be as design mature as it could be,” he said. “We’ve divided the ship into design zones and when the [Type 26] reference ship has reached a level of maturity that we can predict there will be little design change come through, we’ll ‘cut’ that design from the UK process and bring that into the Australian configuration environment. It’s then under our control [and] we expect no more design change to be embodied in the reference ship that has a Hunter impact without being agreed at the Design Council."
The changes to the Type 26 design required to meet the Commonwealth’s specifications include a redesigned hull which is in sections slightly larger than that of the reference ship, to accommodate greater margin capacity in support of capabilities such as the CEA Technologies CEAFAR 2 radar, Aegis combat system (with an Australian Interface), additional Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells, changes to the aviation system and the four Nulka decoy system launchers.
In February, BAE Systems announced the Hunter program had successfully completed a year-long System Definition Review (SDR) – which is a major engineering review intended to define how the Australia-specific requirements integrate into BAE Systems’ Global Combat Ship design.
Lockhart says the Hunter-class frigate will have a displacement of around 8,200 tons (light ship). “We’ll get a good indication in October when HMS Glasgow (the first of the Royal Navy’s eight Type 26 vessels) goes into the water; we’ll get a good indication of the conversion of the model weight to the actual weight,” he added.
“That will be our first real indicator, because we can estimate the changes that we’ve made in terms of gross tonnage that we’ve added to the ship.”
Despite the increased weight of the Australian ship, Dalton, Lutz and Lockhart all expressed comfort with the reduction in design margin over the reference ship. “Service day for ship one is in the last quarter of 2031, but we’re targeting 2029,” Lockhart said.