1 January 1985
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) started the Anzac-class frigate program in the mid-1980s. The program intended to replace the aging River-class frigates. In all, 10 ships were built for the RAN and 2 for the Royal New Zealand Navy.
At the time, the acquisition was the largest in Australia’s history, coming in at $7 billion. The chosen design was the MEKO 200, designed by the German firm Blohm+Voss. It was to be built by the Australian Marine Engineering Corporation (AMEC). The frigates were to be built by the Tenix Defence Marine Division of the Australian Marine Engineering Corporation (AMEC).
The frigates, like the Collins-class submarines, were built in Australia. Almost an entire ship was built every year. The availability of a huge number of Australian subcontractors was vital to this capacity. Likewise, it was also vital to have Tenix’s ability to lead the rest of the industry in assigning roles to those contractors. Its ability to quickly identify companies that could provide local content meant that parts could be assembled quickly and at lower costs.
The Victorian government’s Industrial Supplies Office also played a significant part in enabling this. It was estimated that over 3,000 companies in Australia and New Zealand accounted for over 80 per cent of the subcontractors.
The Anzac-class frigate program was, in its day, the largest project undertaken in Australian defence industry history. Not only that, it was delivered on time and on budget. To many, it showed how Australia could work with partners and allies, as well as local industry, to build major defence projects that, up until that point, had been completed overseas in foreign yards.