Monday May 23, 2005.

CANBERRA, May 23 (Reuters) - The Australian government is considering a Department of Defence recommendation on who should be awarded a A$6 billion ($4.5 billion) ship-building contract and will announce its decision in "the not-too-distant future".

Defence Minister Robert Hill said cabinet would consider the recommendation on who should be appointed to build three new air-warfare destroyers. Cabinet is due to meet in Canberra on Monday afternoon.


"It's a whole-of-government decision that will be made in the not-too-distant future. Advice has reached me from my department. It therefore goes into a cabinet process," Hill told reporters.

Bids for the building contract were made by Australia's state-owned ASC Shipbuilding, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems NOC.N and Australian engineering contractor Tenix Defence.

Bids for the ship design contract from the Blohm and Voss arm of Germany's ThyssenKrupp TKAG.DE, U.S. naval architects Gibbs and Cox and Spain's state-owned Izar were also being considered.

The Australian government has said it was unlikely to sell ASC (previously known as the Australian Submarine Corp.) until 2006, after the ship-building contracts have been awarded.

The ASC became wholly government-owned in late 2000 when the government paid A$50 million to buy out a 49 percent stake held by submarine maker Kockums, which is now part of ThyssenKrupp, but the government has long flagged plans to fully privatise ASC.

ASC is now almost wholly reliant on its long-term contract with the Department of Defence to support and maintain Australia's fleet of Collins-class submarines. Winning a tender for the air-warfare destroyer contract could enhance its value.

($1=A$1.32)

I believe that these AAW ships are supposed to be equipped with the AEGIS SPY-1D radar, a cutdown version of the normal SPY-1. I have also heard talk about aquiring the SM-III missile for a possible ABM role.

However on a another article , it stated that the US has drastically reduced funding for the SM-III LEAP missile. Which seems ironic as this missile is by far ( going by test results ) the most effective against ballistic missile threats.

So I'm not sure what teh Aussie ships will be armed with, but they were/are supposed to have a limited ABM capability,

Depends on Aussie Government's decision to buy the more capable SPY-1D or the smaller Export SPY-1F version.
I hope it's the SPY-1D version.

To counter Indonesian Su 30s i suppose..

Thats what the jindalee radar is for.

Preferred Designer Chosen for AWD Contract


The Federal Government has chosen Gibbs & Cox as the preferred designer for Navy’s Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs) - one of Australia’s largest and most complex Defence projects worth up to $6 billion.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said Gibbs & Cox now joins a team made up of ASC Shipbuilder Pty Ltd, who has been selected to build the AWDs, and Raytheon Australia, selected as the Combat System-System Engineer.

Senator Hill said Gibbs & Cox, a United States based company, was chosen through a competitive tender evaluation process that also included German company Blohm + Voss and Spanish company Navantia.

(Editor’s Note: the selected Gibbs & Cox proposal is based on the US Navy’s DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyer.)c

"The selection of Gibbs and Cox as platform designer now completes the team whose responsibility it is to deliver the project," Senator Hill said.

"The Government made the decision after accepting the recommendation of the Source Selection Board on the basis that Gibbs & Cox offered a superior bid in terms of value for money.

"All three companies presented competitive bids and showed themselves to be very competent naval ship designers. Bids were evaluated against a wide range of criteria.

"The Gibbs & Cox evolved design will now compete with an Australianised version of Spain’s existing F100 ship design, and will be further considered by the Government as part of the next phase of the project.

"The construction of the Air Warfare Destroyers will be one of the most significant shipbuilding projects undertaken in Australia to date, and will provide enormous opportunities for Australian industry," Senator Hill said.

The Government has provided $455 million towards the current phase of the project which includes further design work, workforce skilling, initial infrastructure investment and facilities construction.

Senator Hill said the Defence program office would now advise on a location to establish a state of the art AWD System Centre which will house up to 200 personnel working on the development and through life support of the vessels.

The conduct of the evaluation and selection of Gibbs & Cox was reviewed by AWD Program Probity Advisers KPMG and also independently by Sir Laurence Street, both of whom have confirmed that the process was fair and equitable.

"The AWDs represent a quantum leap in the air warfare capabilities of the Navy," Senator Hill said.
"The vessels, which are to be introduced into service from 2013, will be equipped with the world-class AEGIS Combat System capable of detecting hostile aircraft and missiles at ranges in excess of 150 kilometres."

They will provide significantly increased protection from air attack for troops being transported and deployed on ADF Operations overseas and can provide long-range air warfare defence for a Naval task group.

The AWDs will also have an anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability, as well as the ability to embark a helicopter at sea. The ship will also be interoperable with the United States and other Coalition partners

(Source: Australian Department of Defence; issued Aug. 16, 2005)