By Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will deliver Australia’s new A$10 billion ($6.5 billion) navy frigate programme, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said on Tuesday.
The deal underscored Canberra’s “focus on investing in the capabilities we need now and into the future, to meet Australia’s strategic circumstances”, he said.
The frigate contract is the biggest Australian defence purchase since the government agreed to build nuclear-powered submarines with the United States and Britain in 2023.
MHI’s Mogami frigate was selected over German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ MEKO A-200 in a meeting of the government’s national security committee on Monday.
Marles told reporters that while the MEKO-class frigate was “very impressive”, the Mogami-class frigate was “the best frigate for Australia”.
The upgraded Mogami-class frigate has a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles, compared to Australia’s current Anzac Class frigates, which have a range of around 6,000 nautical miles, Marles said.
The government said in 2024 it would spend up to A$10 billion for the general-purpose frigates to replace the Anzac Class. They will be equipped for undersea warfare and air defence to secure maritime trade routes and Australia’s northern approaches.
It says the first three general-purpose frigates will be built offshore, with the remainder built in Western Australia.
($1 = 1.5456 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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