Doesn't Australia have any Shipbuilding capabilities ?

[Phil Perry]

This vessel ( Type Pv801 ) offshore patrol vessel is being supplied ( don't know how many ) by Lürssen Werft, in Bremen-Vegesack . . .

 

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We ( the UK ) currently have NO vessels for this purpose. . . so that illegal migrants can cross the channel at will, and there is nobody to monitor the Factory Fishing ships from the Netherlands, to check on quotas. . .

 

I was sure that someone mentioned in another thread, that there were TWO decent ship building yards in Australia. . .or is this a political decision. .getting the Europeans to do it ?

 

Just imagine matching military resources and procurement with the actual requirement not vanity and ego projects, as the UK tend to do with a pointless HS2 high speed Rail link.

 

which will knock 20 minutes off the time from London to Birmingham,. . Oh, and a Chinese backed and Controlled Nuke station, whose reactor is still in Prototype, and won't be commissioned until 2028. . .and it's already virtually obsolete, even if it actually DOES provide electricity at 3X the projected average cost of any other Nuke station anywhere. . . .

 

[nomadpete]

I built a sailboat once.......

 

Does that count?

 

Anyway, since Australia became a "foreign trader" to the UK (due to EU agreement), I doubt we could help you with supplying vessels of any kind.

 

Sorry about that, sir.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Australia has pretty decent shipbuilding capability in both WA and South Australia, as well as Bob Clifford's fast catamaran shipyard in Hobart - INCAT - Building the World's Fastest, Efficient, Environmentally Clean, High Speed Ships.

 

However last time we tried to build submarines - the "Collins" class - they were apparently fairly useless, being loud and slow.

 

I don't think it's just a matter of us buying a bunch of ships off the shelf - I believe most of the actual manufacturing will be done here, in partnership with BAE, to build the 9 Global Combat frigates.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Marty, about the Aussie subs.

 

Some years ago I chatted with one of our navy guys. Can't recall just where he had worked so this is quite third hand , but...

 

His comment about our "out of date, so called useless" submarines, was:

 

At first they sure had problems (so did the F111's the yanks sold us, and just about anything military). But later on we had joint manoeuvres with the US and our submarines quite often got right underneath their vessels without being detected. It did upset them and was a source of pride for our guys. Especially when you consider the disparate budgets involved.

 

True or not, I cannot prove, but it was a good story.

 

So it seems to me that every new military toy starts out as a unsuitable thing. Then follows an expensive development path until a new toy gets thought up. (Eg, F35 joint strike fighter).

 

 

[old man emu]

So it seems to me that every new military toy starts out as a unsuitable thing. Then follows an expensive development path until a new toy gets thought up. (Eg, F35 joint strike fighter).

Too true. The first use of tanks on the Western Front in 1916 was a hopeless failure. 24 years later, German tanks rolled over Western Europe with impunity.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Australia has pretty decent shipbuilding capability in both WA and South Australia, as well as Bob Clifford's fast catamaran shipyard in Hobart - INCAT - Building the World's Fastest, Efficient, Environmentally Clean, High Speed Ships...

One of these impressive vessels was used by our defence forces for the East Timor operation..then discarded.

 

I'd like to know why. Locally built, revolutionary design, fast, efficient...why doesn't our Navy use more of them?

 

 

[Marty_d]

Probably made all the Army passengers sick. They used to run them between Georgetown and Lakes Entrance - I did the trip back to Tassie once. There were heaps of people up-chucking and came close myself a couple of times. While the wave-piercing design cuts out all the chop, it doesn't affect the rolling motion over the swells and at 40 knots that gets a little nauseous.

 

 

[willedoo]

Marty, about the Aussie subs.Some years ago I chatted with one of our navy guys. Can't recall just where he had worked so this is quite third hand , but...

 

His comment about our "out of date, so called useless" submarines, was:

 

At first they sure had problems (so did the F111's the yanks sold us, and just about anything military). But later on we had joint manoeuvres with the US and our submarines quite often got right underneath their vessels without being detected. It did upset them and was a source of pride for our guys. Especially when you consider the disparate budgets involved.

 

True or not, I cannot prove, but it was a good story.

 

So it seems to me that every new military toy starts out as a unsuitable thing. Then follows an expensive development path until a new toy gets thought up. (Eg, F35 joint strike fighter).

Pete, from memory, there was a joint exercise in Hawaii. The Collins Class sub was tasked with trying to breach the heavy defence of a US carrier. They figured out that that the cliff face shoreline cut away under the surface, like an overhang. So they snuk around the bay past the defending ships and subs by disguising themselves under the shelf and against the face of rock. When they got out in the open with the carrier in range, they got on the radio and messaged 'bang, you're dead'.

 

A normal navy would realise there's a problem that needed addressing, and say 'try to do it again'. But not the yanks; they spat the dummy and banished the Collins sub to the other side of the island and wouldn't play with them any more. Funny thing about the American military, pride is one of their biggest assets and also one of their biggest downfalls.

 

 

[willedoo]

A few years ago, I went on the tour through the Oberon class submarine in dry dock in Fremantle. Well worth it for anyone over that way.