Spain’s Navantia teams with Australian shipbuilders for corvette offer

PARIS — Navantia’s Australian subsidiary has set up a partnership with Australian shipyard Austal and engineering and shipbuilding company Civmec to jointly propose six corvettes for the Royal Australian Navy.

The three companies have been working together on a detailed proposal since November 2022, and they submitted the idea to the Australian government in response to this year’s Defense Strategic Review , Spanish naval shipbuilder Navantia said in a Nov. 7 statement.

Australia’s defense review , published in April, called for the country’s Navy to have a fleet that would be consistent with a strategy of a larger number of smaller surface vessel. Corvette is typically the designation for the smallest category of warship.

“Navantia offers the partnership a mature design for a highly capable vessel, backed by Navantia Australia’s local and proven design capability,” Navantia Australia Director Israel Lozano said in the statement. “Each partner brings a crucial component to the delivery of a project of this scale.”

The proposal was made public at the Indo Pacific 2023 maritime event being held in Sydney. Navantia brings design expertise, Austal has a skilled workforce and Civmec would provide state-of-the-art facilities and experience building Australia’s Arafura-class vessels, according to Lozano.

The proposed corvette is based on Navantia’s Avante family of patrol vessels. The company in 2018 won a contract from Saudi Arabia to build five corvettes bases on the Avante 2200 design, and has been eyeing a follow-up order in 2024.

The Australian vessels, to be called the Tasman class, would be entirely built in Henderson, Western Australia. Production could start quickly, as the design is “very advanced” and based on an operational reference ship, according to Navantia.

“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,” Lozano said.

The corvettes would each have a crew of less than 100 sailors, and integrate the Saab 9LV combat management system, CEA Technologies’ FAR OPVR radar, Naval Strike Missiles and the Sikorsky MH60-R Seahawk helicopter, Navantia said.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——纳凡蒂亚的澳大利亚子公司与澳大利亚造船厂奥斯塔和工程造船公司Civmec建立了合作关系，共同向澳大利亚皇家海军提出建造六艘轻型护卫舰的方案。

西班牙海军造船商纳凡蒂亚在 11 月 7 日的一份声明中表示，这三家公司自 2022 年 11 月以来一直在共同制定一份详细的提案，并已将该想法提交给澳大利亚政府，以响应今年的国防战略评估。

澳大利亚四月份发布的国防评估报告呼吁，该国海军应拥有一支符合以小型水面舰艇为主的战略舰队。轻型护卫舰通常是最小级别军舰的名称。

“纳凡蒂亚为合作伙伴提供了一套成熟的高性能船舶设计方案，并依托纳凡蒂亚澳大利亚公司本土成熟的设计能力，”纳凡蒂亚澳大利亚公司董事以色列·洛萨诺在声明中表示。“每个合作伙伴都为完成如此规模的项目贡献了至关重要的力量。”

该提案在悉尼举行的2023年印太海事展上公布。洛萨诺表示，纳凡蒂亚公司拥有设计专长，奥斯塔公司拥有技术熟练的工人队伍，而西夫梅克公司将提供最先进的设施和建造澳大利亚阿拉弗拉级舰艇的经验。

拟建的轻型护卫舰以纳凡蒂亚公司的阿凡特系列巡逻舰为基础。该公司于2018年赢得了沙特阿拉伯的合同，建造五艘基于阿凡特2200设计的轻型护卫舰，并一直期待在2024年获得后续订单。

这些被命名为“塔斯曼级”的澳大利亚舰艇将全部在西澳大利亚州亨德森建造。据纳凡蒂亚公司称，由于该设计“非常先进”，并且以一艘现役参考舰为基础，因此可以很快开始生产。

洛萨诺表示：“凭借纳凡蒂亚在技术转让方面建立区域能力的显著成就，此次合作将在西澳大利亚建立一个综合性的造船企业。”

纳凡蒂亚公司表示，每艘护卫舰的船员将不足 100 人，并将集成萨博 9LV 作战管理系统、CEA Technologies 的 FAR OPVR 雷达、海军打击导弹和西科斯基 MH60-R 海鹰直升机。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。