That is not true.
It is billions over budget. Look at all the team players that make up a signature block, by any other name:
Project Name : RAN Air Warfare Destroyers - COMMITTED
Description :
The A$6 Billion Air Warfare Destroyer project seeks to upgrade Australias maritime defence capability with three state-of-the-art ships. The ships will be the largest, most advanced and complex warships ever built in Australia and will introduce the AEGIS combat system to the Royal Australian Navy.
Current planning will see the three ships delivered to the Royal Australian Navy from 2013 to 2017.
The SEA 4000 –Air Warfare Destroyer Program will use an alliance-based contracting strategy for the detailed design and construction phase of the Program.
The Government has selected Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd (RAPL) and ASC AWD Shipbuilder Pty Ltd as the preferred industry participants to join the Commonwealth in the Alliance. Gibbs & Cox Inc will provide platform design services, Bath Iron Works Australia Corporation will provide assistance to ASC AWD Shipbuilder Pty Ltd and the United States Navy and Lockheed Martin Corporation will provide specific combat-system related support and equipment.
The Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance is a collaborative set of arrangements between the Commonwealth of Australia, Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd, Gibbs & Cox Inc and ASC AWD Shipbuilder Pty Ltd supported by Bath Iron Works Australia Corporation. The Alliance is not a corporate entity, partnership, or joint venture and no party has the authority to act as agent or enter into any commitments whatsoever for the Alliance or for any other party in the Alliance. No party in the Alliance acts for, or in partnership with, the Commonwealth of Australia.
Under the alliance-based strategy, the Commonwealth, along with the industry participants will work together in an integrated team environment to achieve project objectives.
CONTACTS:
Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd
AWD Contracts Manager
50 Waterloo Road
NORTH RYDE NSW 2113 Australia
e-mail: Richard.Hawtin@AusAWD.com
ASC AWD Shipbuilder Pty Ltd
Mersey Road, Outer Harbor
South Australia 5018
GPO Box 2472, Adelaide
South Australia 5001
Telephone 08 8348 7000
Facsimile 08 8348 7001
e-mailinfo@asc.com.au
Defence Materiel Organisation
AWD Program Office
Russell Offices (R2-2-D002)
Canberra
ACT 2600
ausawd@ausawd.com
Website Links
Project Alliance http://www.ausawd.com
ASC AWD Shipbuilder Pty Ltd http://www.asc.com.au/
Raytheon Australia http://www.raytheon.com.au
Gibbs & Cox Inc http://www.gibbscox.com
$6B vs today at $8.5B. I nominate it as a $10B project if trends continue.
For 3 ships.
Of more interest, the Entrenched Defence Bureaucracy tried to pass this off as a $5B project.
All this of course, is misleading our elected officials. The goal for this deception? Get the project started with some funding no matter what. Hook the elected officials to a point where it is too late to retreat.
Who exactly told Dr. Gallop et al, that the project was for $6B?
Extract from Hansard
[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 August 2005]
p4881b-4881b
Ms Jaye Radisich; Dr Geoff Gallop
It will strengthen our case to get more of the work associated with the $6 billion air warfare destroyer contract awarded to the Submarine Corporation to come to Western Australia. It will set Western Australia up to win the $2 billion amphibious vessel project.
And what do we get? Lots of questions.
The current AWD program is misdirected in its role optimisation, and poorly thought out in its choice of technologies.
A very good case can be made for the AWD program to be delayed by at least a half decade to permit the incorporation of modern low observable hull technology, and the latest X-band active array technology, preferably in a smaller and more affordable hull. If SEA 4000 materialises in its current form, the RAN will be burdened for the next three decades with the last of a generation of technologies, with a design ill adapted to the developing realities of regional maritime warfare.
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