BAE Systems Australia is offering an up-armed, evolved version of the Hunter class frigate to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as a way of rapidly increasing the firepower of the surface fleet. BAE argues that their proposal, which effectively replaces the Hunter class mission bay with additional missile tubes, offers an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, approach to delivering additional capability to the RAN.
Craig Lockhart, Managing Director at BAE Systems Australia, described the proposal as the “closest thing to off the shelf” available to Australia.
The concept, which BAE is proposing for Batch II of the class, uses the space allocated for the mission bay on the Hunter class to insert 64 Mk41 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) and 16 Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) into the ship for a total of 96 VLS cells.
If the RAN elected to remove the 5 inch Mk 45 gun, Lockhart said, it would enable the VLS count to grow even more to 128 cells – which surpasses even the United States Navy’s (USN) Ticonderoga class Guided Missile Cruisers.
According to BAE the up-armed, Batch II Hunter, maintains 85% commonality with the existing ships that are under construction at Osborne, South Australia. The most significant difference is the removal of the Thales Sonar 2087 towed array and various other unspecified Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) systems.
It would also involve “minor” changes to the ship’s propulsion and power systems to accommodate for the increased top weight of the high-mounted VLS cells.
The proposed modifications would have a “minimal” impact on cost and a “negligible” impact on schedule so long as build of the modified design commenced with Batch II, rather than Batch I ships, Lockhart said.
BAE is also exploring alternative ways to up-arm the frigates through the use of containerised air-defence and surface-to-surface missiles.
Right now, however, a decision has not been made and BAE is simply “offering options” to its customer which is the Australian Department of Defence and RAN. The original Hunter class contract, signed in 2018, always included scope for redesigns between each batch of three ships.
BAE Systems Australia Hits Back
The BAE proposal comes amid criticism of the Hunter class program in Australian media, think tank and industry circles.
Last month BAE System Australia’s Craig Lockhart hit back at the criticism, much of which has focused on the ship’s lack of VLS cells and delays in delivery, arguing that the frigate program offers the only timely path towards achieving new capability for the RAN.
The Batch II design effectively addresses both of those criticisms, by promising both more VLS, and the quicker delivery of capability than most competitors.
Our interview with BAE Systems at Indo Pacific 2023:
