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| Down Under |
| Destroyer design splits Aussie defense |
| 2007-06-17 |
| An 11th-hour rift has developed between Australia's navy and Defense Department over plans to build Aegis-equipped, anti-missile destroyers. The Royal Australian Navy wants ships based on the design of the 8,700-ton U.S. Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, but defense officials are recommending ships based on Spain's lighter and cheaper F100 frigate by Navantia. With just a week remaining before Prime Minister John Howard makes his choice, Navy Vice Adm. Russ Shalders has gone directly to senior government ministers and advisers to make his case, The Australian reported Friday. "If the government endorses the rumored Navantia choice, it will be opting for the ... lower project risk profile that comes with an established design," said Australian Strategic Policy Institute expert Andrew Davies. "The tradeoff will be a capability that is lower now and that, perhaps more importantly, has less growth room in the future." Australia's defense modernization plans calls for new destroyers equipped with anti-ballistic missile capabilities. That means ships equipped with the U.S. Aegis multi-capability missile tracking, guidance and interception system, and the use of the advanced Standard Missile. Deployment of ships using the system is important for Australia, given the potential missile threat posed by North Korea and Australia's increased cooperation with Japan and the United States in developing an Asia-Pacific anti-ballistic missile network. Navantia and the U.S. ship designer Gibbs and Cox are both vying for the contract worth more than $6 billion. The ships would be constructed by the Australian government-owned ASC company in Adelaide. A Defense Department evaluation chose the Navantia design because four of those vessels are already in service with the Spanish Navy, and the cost of building would be less than that of the U.S. design. But Adm. Shalders argues the smaller Navantia ships would inhibit future component adaptability. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 Well, I guess it depends if you want it to work or not. If you want it to sit there and stink, it'll be cheap. If you want it to work, it'll be expensive. |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2007-06-17 21:42 |