The Australian has reported that the $8 billion plan to build three new air warfare destroyers (AWDs) for the RAN has had its first serious setback through the ‘botched’ construction of the central keel block of the first ship.
According to the report it appears that the central keel block was built to inaccurate dimensions as a result of faulty welding and ‘inadequate quality control’ at the Williamstown shipyards, managed by AWD subcontractor BAE Systems.
The AWD project manager was reported as confirming that there had been difficulties in block fabrication of the warship at Williamstown which would affect production schedules.
“The difficulties cannot be attributed to a single cause but production start-up issues experienced by the shipbuilder, some difficulties in specific know-how and technical data have contributed,” the Alliance told The Australian.
“The difficulties resulted in an unexpected distortion in a component of one of the blocks.”
The distortion of the central keel block - which weighs about 200 tonnes, measures 20m by 17m and supports important heavy machinery - made it potentially incompatible with other blocks of the ship being built in Adelaide by ASC and Newcastle by Forgacs.
Comment
ADM understands that BAE Systems has been aware of the issue for quite some time and has been taking steps to address it.
While many point to the indigenous shipbuilding capability developed by building the ANZAC and Huon classes in the 1980s, the reality is that the men and women that built these capabilities have long since left the industry.
It takes time and experience to build this again and this is what we are seeing now.
Fingers crossed for the Alliance and their subcontractors.