Air Warfare Destroyer hull construction work at ASC's Osborne shipyard, South Australia (photo : Australian DoD)
Construction of Air Warfare Destroyers Underway
Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Materiel and Science, announced today that full production of Australia’s three Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers (AWD) is now underway.
In a ceremony at the BAE Systems shipyard in Melbourne, Mr Combet announced that full production of hull blocks has now commenced at three shipyards: ASC in Adelaide, BAE Systems in Melbourne and Forgacs in Newcastle.
“More than 500 people are now working on building hull blocks for the AWDs, and this will grow to a total workforce in the three shipyards of over 1,000 people,” said Mr Combet.
“Overall, more than 3,000 people will be working to build these warships around Australia and importantly, about 200 apprentices will join the project in the next few years.
“Each ship will be made up of 31 blocks fabricated at the three shipyards. The construction of each ship will require 51 kilometres of piping, 427 kilometres of electrical cable, 4,700 tonnes of steel, 138,000 litres of paint, 4,700 mechanical valves and 1.5 million fasteners.
“By mid-2011, completed hull blocks will begin to arrive in Adelaide for consolidation into the complete warship at the Government of South Australia’s Common User Facility.
“Successful completion of pilot fabrication work and production readiness reviews has finalised the transition of the project from detailed design into full production of the ships.
“This is an important milestone for this national project, and I wish to congratulate everyone involved in helping us reach this point,” Mr Combet said.
The project is on track to deliver the first AWD, HMAS Hobart, in December 2014. HMAS Brisbane is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2016 and HMAS Sydney in mid 2017.
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