Ritain’s Chief of the Armed Forces has assured: Australia that a troubled British-designed frigate project is on track despite “teething problems”.
The £26 billion project that the British company BAE systems won the Australian contract four years ago was brought to renewed attention during the visit of Admiral Sir Tony Radakin of the Chief of Defense Staff Down Under.
In an interview with the news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Sir Tony admitted the UK parent program had “teething problems”, but insisted the joint project was on track.
“The overall program is in good shape, but what you inevitably see with a first-class, with these high-end designs … are teething problems with the first ship,” he said.
“Those are being resolved and it’s all going very, very well.”
BAE Systems, the UK’s largest defense contractor, won the project to produce nine high-tech, anti-submarine frigates in 2018 after beating rival Spanish and Italian designs in a fierce competition.
The fleet of global “Hunter-class” battleships is based on the new British warship Type 26. Production on the ships began in Adelaide in 2020 and at the time of BAE’s win of the contract, they were expected to be in production before 2030. would speed up.
However, according to ABC newsgrowing concern about delays and technical problems with the project.
Sir Tony, who is currently in Australia for the Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense (CHODs) conference in Sydney, said there would likely be more visits to Australia from Royal Navy nuclear submarines as work on the Aukus project continues. .
In November, BAE Systems denied that “supply chain pressures” from the pandemic had had any impact on performance or operations for 2021.
The defense giant said it had a “strong” pipeline of opportunities and stressed that there is “continued demand” for its capabilities, with defense largely resilient to the impact of the pandemic.
At the time, the contractor said it was particularly well positioned to be boosted by higher defense spending in the Asia-Pacific region.