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| Spain's F104: Base design for the Hobart class Destroyer |
AN $8.5 billion taxpayer-funded “alliance’’ to build three hi-tech navy warships was a multi-tiered debacle, government auditors have found.
The Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance is running two years late, is $302 million over budget and is bleeding money at the rate of $1 million a week, according to well placed sources.
The auditors also revealed that the original premium for building the three ships in Australia rather than purchasing “off-the-shelf’’ overseas was $1 billion.
That is a 30 per cent taxpayer subsidy to the ship builders.
“The cost increase is likely to be significantly greater (than $302 million),’’ the document said.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report could spell the end for government ownership of the ASC shipyard in Adelaide and, according to government sources, it draws a line in the sand for the whole Australian naval shipbuilding industry.
“Defence and its industry advisers underestimated the risks associated with incorporating the design changes to Navantia’s F-104 design, exporting that design to Australia ... built at shipyards that lacked recent experience in warship building,’’ the audit report said.
Read the full story at News.com.au