nAvAl Group

for the design and construction of nine new Hunter-class frigates built to the company’s Type 26 design. Meanwhile at ASC North a new submarine yard is still under construction that is specifically designed by French shipbuilder Naval Group for the build of the new class of 12 Attack-class submarines to the company’s new Shortfin Barracuda design.

However, Australia has significant challenges ahead. Bitzinger said that the cost of shipbuilding is putting increased pressure on the affordability of the programmes and because the frigate and submarine builds are concentrated on the two new yards there are not enough shipbuilding projects to support the rest of Australia’s industry. Although companies like Lurssen Australia have secured a contract to build 12 new Offshore Patrol Vessels others like Austal or BAE’s facility in Williamtown have no major shipbuilding contracts.

“Certainly naval shipbuilding is expensive to maintain and even more expensive to establish. However, for a country to have a naval shipbuilding sector depends mostly on the consistency of local demand for its products,” Waldwyn said. “It is all well and good to have a local shipyard license-build a couple of submarines, frigates or OPVs as part of a wider order, but the key question is what will the yard be working on in the years and decades after? How will those jobs and those skills be maintained? Local demand will be of increasing importance going forward if more countries seek to also gain the capability to build these types of platforms thus decreasing the opportunity for exports.” Technology transfer Both Malaysia and Indonesia are gradually building more sophisticated warships through technology transfer with overseas companies thus enhancing their shipyard capabilities. Malaysia has based its naval shipbuilding around Boustead Naval Shipbuilding, which is building the Maharaja Lela-class frigates based on Naval Group’s Gowind 2500 design and the Littoral Mission Ship corvette with China’s CSIC. Indonesia uses PT Pal as the focus for its naval programmes and its latest project is the construction of modules for its new Martadinata-class (PKR) frigates built to the SIGMA 10514 design from Dutch shipbuilder Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding. However, neither government in Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta can generate enough orders for warships to sustain an expanded industrial base long term. But what they do have is cheaper manufacturing costs and they could be successful in the export market for smaller warships in the region and beyond.

Neighbouring Singapore has the most advanced capabilities in the SE Asia sub-region. ST Engineering Marine has gained valuable experience building the French-designed Formidable-class frigates, Swedish-designed Littoral Mission Vessel and Endurance-class landing ship tanks for the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN. It is now building a Joint Multi-Mission Ship and MultiRole Combat Vessel for the RSN and has design proposals for a larger 160m-long LHD variant of the Endurance-class.

Meanwhile Thailand is building new OPVs at its Bangkok Dock facility to a 90m design from BAE Systems and intends to develop the design further. Myanmar has built two Kyansittharclass frigates at its Thanlyin Naval Dockyard with plans for a further six based on the two Jianghu-class frigates it had bought from China in 2012. It also built its own Anawratha-class missile corvettes and Fast Attack Craft as it moves away from reliance on second hand overseas vessels. This is largely a response to the expansion of the naval forces of neighbouring Bangladesh and Thailand.

Elsewhere Taiwan has a welldeveloped naval shipbuilding sector centred around CSBC Shipbuilding that has built multipurpose frigates and LPDs and Lung The that has manufactured the Tuo Chiang-class stealth multi-mission corvette.

Looking ahead, Waldwyn expects the capability of navies and coast guards will continue to grow. “Tension between countries, particularly between China and its neighbours in the East and South China Seas, will likely drive investment into maritime surveillance platforms such as OPVs, frigates and fixed-wing ISR and/or ASW aircraft,” he said. AMR

The JS Kumano (FFM2) is the second ship of the 30DX frigate series and was built by Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding, Tamano, Japan.

India's Mazagon Docks (MDL) in Mumbai, which builds the Project 75 Kalvari-class hunter killer submarines (SSKs).