DEFENCE CONNECT, Robert Dougherty, 01 August 2024 : Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has defended the alleged $4 billion price tag of each future Hunter Class frigate. The Minister for Defence, speaking during a press conference at RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory, declared the ships as the \u201cheart of Australia\u2019s surface combatant fleet\u201d and \u201cquietest frigate in the world\u201d. \u201cThe Hunter Class frigates are going to be as capable a frigate as exists in the world today. Hunter Class frigates will be the quietest frigate that exists in the world today. And we are very excited about what Hunter will add to our surface fleet,\u201d he said during the press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will really be at the heart of our surface combatant fleet. Given, in a sense, what this announcement today is about is an acknowledgement of the vastness of our ocean approaches, of the areas that we need to surveil, of the task at hand for our Defence Force, in terms of surveilling and going after the assets of any adversary at sea, Hunter is right at the forefront of that as well. So, we are really looking forward to Hunter. \u201cAnd Hunter has had its issues, but it is very much back on track. And we are looking forward to the implementation of Hunter into our surface fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Greens spokesperson for Defence Senator David Shoebridge said the incoming Hunter Class frigates, at $4 billion each, would be one of the most expensive ships ever built. \u201cThe Hunter frigate program is turning into a black hole for the Labor government to pour billions of dollars into,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Albanese Labor government has now had multiple opportunities to course correct but they have doubled down on failure. \u201cIf we look at countries like South Korea, they are manufacturing bigger and better-equipped ships for a fraction of the price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about investing in defence, it\u2019s about rewarding failure by politicians who repeatedly prove themselves incapable of holding Defence to account. \u201cThe Greens referred this program to the NACC because it showed clear signs of corruption, but this whole program also shows a complete disregard for the public interest, value for money and what is in the best interests of the defence of Australia. \u201cOver the next decade, the Albanese government has planned for nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars to be spent on Defence. If that spending looks like the Hunter frigates program, we will blow endless billions of dollars and end the decade far less safe.\u201d A public statement from the Greens alleges that the federal government had handed over a further $11 billion to build the steel hulls for three Hunter Class frigates. The initial $2.25 billion contract was for just the design and \u201cproductisation\u201d of the Hunter Class frigate; however, it was amended without tender this month and jumped to nearly $15 billion. It is understood that the additional $11 billion provided by the government is just for the hulls of three ships, not including any weapons, radar or other essential equipment, according to the Greens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DEFENCE CONNECT, Robert Dougherty, 01 August 2024 : Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has defended the alleged $4 billion price tag of each future Hunter Class frigate. The Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1821,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-s1-ships","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1821"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8941,"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8940\/revisions\/8941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navalofficer.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}