Japan Wins $6.4-B Deal To Supply Australia with 11 Stealth Frigates

Australia said it has accepted a Japanese company’s bid for a lucrative and hotly contested contract to build 11 Australian warships, valued at about 10 billion Australian dollars ($6.5 billion), Charlotte Graham-McLay and Mari Yamaguchi reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The sale of the 11 5,500-ton Mogami-class frigates is the largest arms export deal in Tokyo’s history. (Photo: Hiroshi miyaji Wikimedia Commons)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Mogami-class frigate won the deal over Germany’s MEKO A-200 from Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

Japan’s government lobbied heavily for the agreement after losing Australia’s submarines contract to a French company in 2016. Reporting for Insider, Matthew said the sale of the 11 5,500-ton Mogami-class frigates is the largest arms export deal in Tokyo’s history.

“This is clearly the biggest defense industry agreement that will ever have been struck between Japan and Australia,” Defense Minister Richard Marles told reporters when announcing the deal Tuesday.

“In fact, it’s really one of the biggest defense exports that Japan has ever engaged in.”

The fleet will replace Australia’s aging ANZAC-class ships. Three of the frigates will be built in Japan, with the first scheduled to be operational in Australia in 2030, and the remaining eight due for construction domestically.