Australia’s navy is set to be equipped with a major surface combatant fleet twice as large as planned when Labor came to government following a review.
Defence Minister Richard Marles has included in a foreward to the review to be released on Tuesday:
“This will see Navy equipped with a major surface combatant fleet twice as large as planned when we came to government.
“And with more of these new surface combatants in the water and operational sooner.”
Sky News spoke to Strategic Analysis Director Michael Shoebridge about the matter.
source
I will believe it when I see it, ever since 2007 the various Liberal and Labour governments have been talking about the new submarines, they finally got started in 2016, the deal fell apart with the French, in 2018, now they have been talking about the nuclear submarines a deal that looks set to fall apart when Trump gets in.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
as the Ukrainians are proving again and again, a conventional navy is the past, drones, sub, surface and air are the future.
so only the biggest and badest vessels operated by the richest navies have more fire power than the hunters does he want/ expect us to build 90/100 cell destroyers like the US and China and how much of the budget will go to filling those cells most navies have more modest vessels including Britan and France and a lot more money than we do we'd be better of and have more fire power from a Canberra converted to use F35B's but they stopped any idea of that happening by canceling any future orders
Believe it when i see it.
A 5 minute storm knocked out power to over 500,000 people in Victoria, I think the bigger threat is upgrading infrastructure!
The big question one should ask when it comes to Labor and Military matters and acquisitions is how long and how hell are we going to crew such acquisitions
Then we come to Australia's record of purchasing useless duds like ships and subs that cannot fire missiles or dud Helicopters
Rubbish your Navy is a joke of the world. Fkn Indonesia could take your ass
typical.. lets make things happen.
Labor can make this happen straight away by subcontracting the building and the running of the ships straight to CHINA,
Easy to spout hollow words when they are not held accountable to produce any units during the 3 years they are in power. We must be halfway through this government’s term, no longer will the public accept that they can keep blaming the previous incumbent for all the countries woes, so it must be time to start spouting out empty promises to try and get re-elected..
He’s including the drones.
this report is saying the red tape timeline from announcing the planned new Naval vessels & building the ships for the navy to use needs to be fast tracked .
This is true however the design of the new warships must suite the needs & be more than capable of doing the job required with the ability to add additional upgrades .
The time frame is of most importantance & the numbers in the fleet need to be lifted to 16 . Australia has a massive amount of coastline to defend & protect & our Navy also are required to protect our neighbours. .
The entire defence budget needs to be tripled for the next 5 years thats just to catch up with what is needed to protect Australia & our neighbouring friends
Is no body watching what is happening in Ukraine…. ? Invest everything in drone warfare. Conventional warfare is dead.
Twice as many ships but ships are 3rd as big
So where do we get the manpower from. Imagine now what the First nation lead Australia and the British did not come and colonised Australia I wonder what the navy would look like had no problem with manpower but the wooden cannoes would be a sight to see.
Is this another joke by this idiots
oh dear me. but marly you are upsetting your communist masters in beijing
Twice as large? So we get 2 boats instead of 1 lol
Does this mean 6 more rowboats
Labor and the ADF, what a joke. So now we'll have four ships instead of two. Lmao.
Look at the size of Australia…the coast line, and the dreamers think we can defend it with a few ships? We’d be a gonna before morning tea if a war broke out. P.S. I love Australia.
FROM WHAT IVE SEEN WHILE WORKING ON NAVY SITES IN SYDNEY IS THE NAVY PEOPLE ARE FAT. BLUNT BUT I SEE FACTS NOT FEELINGS
and it will see the Army operating M113 APCs that were first procured in 1964, for comparison, in 1964 the RAAF was operating the CA-27 Sabre – they have since replaced them with the Mirage IIIC, then replaced those with the F/A-18, life extended them and then replaced those with a mix of Super Hornets and F-35s.
I don't object to the RAAF having decent planes or the Navy having modern ships, but the diggers are entitled to have modern equipment to protect them too.
If this is to be realised then some of these ships will need to be built overseas and if Australia keeps the Hunter class they will need to be seriously up gunned with more VLS. I think Navantia made an offer to build 3 more upgraded Hobart's as well as 6 or more corvettes in Spain with some being delivered within 4 years. Japan, Korea and the US have all offered various designs ranging from corvettes to large destroyers. If the Australian government is serious about this and are willing to put their money where their mouth is than it is possible to get some ships quickly. Finding crews is a separate problem though.
Due to severe recruiting shortfalls the navy can't even man the ships it currently has. Good luck manning a navy twice as large!
Seriously surface fleet ????
Australia should only focus on defending the continent after picking fights with China / Russia & Co .
Every volunteer they can get to step forward in a citizen military force. ( self funded & tax deductible & tax incentives )
Massive investment in home grown missiles of many different types.
Float planes & bush planes. That can take off and land anywhere. Dumb planes with good missiles👊 .
disgusting lies from a corrupt media
Now these clowns begin to worry about Australia’s complete lack of military capability
Ships that are missile trucks would be great but don't forget all those reinforced CCP milita boats disguised as fishing boats. That requires guns of decent calibre with large magazines.
Either the government will have to hire US servicemen to Man these vessels, or Press-Gang new Immigrants, like a Pirate Captain Albo.
Press Gang:
noun
a body of men employed to enlist men forcibly into service in the army or navy.
verb
forcibly enlist (someone) into service in the army or navy.
"a press-ganged navy"
(Oxford Languages, 2024).
So, 24? Where are the sailors coming from? Smaller ships mean more sailors required! Ludicrous. We need the 9 Hunter and just get 3 more destroyers. Corvettes in the huge Pacific will be a joke. Hunters can easily be upgunned to the Canadian version, 76 missiles.
I don't know how RAN is going to protect Australia with double the fleet of just ASW ships. I wonder if there are any AWDs in the new list.
I hope the cutback to 6 Hunter class will all be all AWDs of 96.cell.VLS and the smaller vessels. Whatever they choose will be ASW. It will be weird to have 6 hunter class of ASW and 12 or so corvettes if this what they have planned. It will mean we can hunt submarines Whoopi do. It's too bad if we face off with destroyers. No aircraft carrier, no long stike bombers, no decent destroyers. Yeah, good luck
Were's the nuclear subs i dont think we will see this happen lies lies lies.
There is nothing wrong with adding more ships to the surface fleet.
You can move the ANZAC Frigates to border security or Coast Guard?
Once they have been replaced that way you have a secondary line of defence, without even having to panic.
You want to be able to have 2 crews for each ship as people need to be swapped out unless the ship goes into maintenance and you can transfer your people to other ships etc
You have to think smarter. You don’t need another 4 amphibious landing ships.
You would be better off getting a ship like the ESB Lewis B. Puller ( Expeditionary Sea Base )
AUKUS submarines need to be built here.
Just like most ships we need to be self-sufficient here.
That way you have more than one option and can utilise it in different configurations.
The problem is not getting ships. The problem has always been a government that has delayed, providing the next step forward.
We also need to keep an eye on lobby groups and what the agenda is that they are paying for when it comes to defence.
And undermining the Australian way of life. For example if you live in Asia, you have to be a citizen to own land or house?
So why are we allowing anyone to own houses from overseas that have made a false bubble so that average Australians cannot afford a house?
You have to ask yourself, why Asian governments in particular protect their people so they can afford a house?
And the Australian government has allowed foreigners to build a false bubble so housing becomes unreachable for the people.
So who is the Australian government work for. Poor leadership from the top and this undermines our values.
And there seems to be no accountability when it comes to that they just get voted out and all is forgotten.
So keep kicking the can down the road.
The government really needs to start supporting the Defence Force and some of the times that means living outside the budget that you have given them.
If you want more ships, planes, tank you need to increase defence spending now whether they put their under a different category, so defence is not infected by these purchases that is up to government to have a split the budget one for everyday defence and another for purchasing equipment.
That way you don’t lose continuity within defence force, and the promises made to upgrade equipment for the 3 forces are met.
And you’re not waiting for equipment upgrades it should happen years ago and the example I would use would be M113 which is a good taxi and can still be used in the reserves and as a second line transport.
So, if you have young people that wanted to create in the Navy that are turned off because who wants to play with old equipment, or we will get new equipment with less ships because we are relying on technology.
It becomes a problem because less people join less people look up to defence.
And if defence isolates itself from the population is supposed to be protecting, and serving the void gets filled in with gangs.
Plus you have the problem of teachers converting kids to become trans kids weak minded people that think they are special.
The ADF needs people that can work together and comes from all walks of life.
After all that is what unites us all.
We cannot cater to a minority group otherwise the whole defence structure will fall to bits because it is being undermined by a few.
We also have to sell the defence force to the young remind them that there is pride in the nation and there are apprenticeships with opportunities.
Plus there is leadership opportunities within the ranks, a direct line to becoming an officer.
We also have to reinforce the fact that promotions come with ability and not popularity or minority quotes.
We need leaders with back spines that will do their due diligence.
And some of the time that means you might have to take the side of the individual because the group is bullying and instead of getting rid of the individual transferring them to another unit maybe but also working with those that have their own fears and insecurities to work on.
That is what you have to change in the leadership areas.
As everyone wants a fair deal and some of the times the leaders you work for do not have all the tools in the toolbox or they don’t like someone else’s charisma.
The attitude of paper scissors rank has to go because we are all needing personal development.
And if you have a leader that is negligent you need to correct this behaviour because normalisation of deviance can cause a catastrophic failure.
Plus one standard for all people do not like hypocrites one fitness test for all.
And if that means dropping the standard to the female standard to retain people, so be it and for those that want to excel for the elite forces.
And like anyone who wants to get there they will take their opportunities to make it happen.
This has all been done in the past. But some of the times you lose the lessons.
Because you are a peacetime defence force and the rot sits in until the next major conflict.
And you cannot have people sitting here in the defence force for 30 years wasting oxygen because they got comfortable.
You just have to look at the Russians as they have lost about at 10 generals in the Special Military Operation.
We all have an expiry date and that goes for those that think they are untouchable.
Don’t get me wrong there are some good people that contribute at an older age but if they are part of the rot from the Core they need to go.
And you don’t want to get rid of the new blood coming through they will leave if their career does not progress.
At the same time to build a good society you need to have the young join because if nothing else they will leave being a better citizen.
If it was a LNP plan you’d be cheering like school girls. If China take a look at Barnaby Joyce they will invade tomorrow 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The Chinese are laughing at us……and you allow millions of them into the country?
So when we are invaded the people you gave citizenship to will burn us alive!!!!!
WAKE UP.
What a joke. Looking at the ukraine russia war Drones are the go. Inexpensive. Every town city should have them in their thousands. 16 y o kids can fly these things. Naval drones as well are sinking the Russian fleet. Also nuclear weapons. If we traded nuclear weapons instead of those ships it would be a MAD (mutually assured destruction) for any country to attack us. With a sabre rattling new PM of Indonesia and since we have advertised we could only fight a war for one week they must be looking at us. Northern hemisphere goes to war Indo could take us in a heart beat.
Who exactly are going to crew these ships? Immigrants?
How can we spend 20 billion when we're broke?
We don't have 20 billion to spend.
We're bankrupt and the debts getting worse.
To equip a navy you need a massive budget surplus and 2 trillion paid back to the money lenders.
Irresponsible government.
Really stupid and reckless
Nice, maybe the ADF can review and consider the outdated posting cycle, conditions, etc to actually attract new recruits and retain current members…
It's aboriginal land let them put on a sailors rig and defend the joint. We've been told that we aren't welcome here any more. Let them go to war and then come back and tried by journalists for war crimes.
More tax.
No detail and 10 years away. The final timeline will start in 4-5 years when Labor are out of Government
The previous government shafted Australia when it came to defence. They had 10 years in which they wasted it on dud helicopters to the French submarine fiasco and a promise of a $35 billion dollar missile program to which was only allocated $1 billion?