The Diplomat
Navantia Australia and the Australian shipyards Austal and Civmec have teamed up to offer the Australian Government a proposal for the design and manufacture of six corvettes, with the aim of meeting the Australian Navy’s urgent need to increase its capacity, according to the Spanish company.
These corvettes, designed by Navantia, require a smaller crew than larger vessels, while maintaining high integrated anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine, electronic and asymmetric warfare capabilities, including sovereign solutions such as the Australian Saab combat system and CEA Technologies radars.
The three companies have been collaborating on a detailed proposal since November 2022. The proposal was first submitted to the Commonwealth of Australia in response to the 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) and an independent analysis of the Navy’s naval fleet and has been presented publicly on the occasion of the Indopacific exhibition, in which the company’s president, Ricardo Dominguez, is participating.
The corvettes, called Tasman class, would be built entirely in Henderson, Western Australia, and production could begin quickly, as the design is very advanced and is based on an operational reference ship.
Commenting on the collaboration, Navantia Australia director Israel Lozano said that “the partnership with Austal and Civmec is ideal due to the extensive shipbuilding knowledge and capabilities” of these companies. “Together, Austal, Civmec and Navantia Australia have 58 years of local shipbuilding experience. Each partner brings a crucial component to the delivery of a project of this scale: Navantia brings the design expertise, Austal the skilled workforce and Civmec the state-of-the-art facilities and experience in building Arafura class vessels. Together with Navantia’s demonstrable track record in technology transfer to build regional capability, this partnership will establish an integrated shipbuilding enterprise in Western Australia,” said Israel Lozano.
“Navantia offers the partnership a mature design for a highly capable vessel, backed by Navantia Australia’s local and proven design capability,” he added.
Austal’s CEO, Paddy Gregg, highlighted the company’s experience “in building ships for the Australian Navy on time and on price, with third party designs and in establishing collaborative relationships across the value chain”.
The president of Civmec, Jim Fitzgerald, said he is “looking forward to working with Navantia and Austal to deliver six or more corvettes, on time and on budget”. He also stressed that this partnership, in which Civmec and Austal have the qualified personnel and Navantia has the technological expertise to be able to deliver internationally renowned but locally built ships.
Navantia’s proposed corvette is based on the Avante class family, a proven design whose Australian variant has several key features important to Royal Australian Navy operations that distinguish it from other corvettes.
These features include superior endurance and range to enable effective regional force projection, enhanced sea-keeping capability and improved strike capability through NSM anti-surface missiles and MK-41 vertical launch system cells. The corvettes would also integrate the Saab 9LV combat management system, CEA FAR OPVR radar, the recently announced naval strike missiles and the MH60-R Seahawk helicopter.
With a crew complement of less than 100, commonality with other Australian Navy vessels, designed by Navantia and standards aligned with the Defence Seaworthiness Management System, these corvettes significantly reduce training and LCA risks, allowing Australia to enhance its naval capability with speed and confidence.
