Billion dollar destroyer

The Australian Federal Government has chosen Gibbs & Cox as the preferred designer for Navy’s Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs) - one of Australia’s largest and most complex defence projects worth up to $6 billion.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said Gibbs & Cox now joins a team made up of ASC Shipbuilder, who has been selected to build the AWDs, and Raytheon Australia, selected as the Combat System-System Engineer.

Senator Hill said Gibbs & Cox, a US based company, was chosen through a competitive tender evaluation process that also included German company Blohm + Voss and Spanish company Navantia.

"The Gibbs & Cox evolved design will now compete with an Australianised version of Spain's existing F100 design, and will be further considered by the Government as part of the next phase of the project," Senator Hill said.

The current F100 Spanish frigate, Alvaro De Bazan Class FFG – an Australianised version of which will compete with the preferred designer, Gibbs & Cox, in the next phase of the Air Warfare Destroyer Project.

Senator Hill said the Australian Defence Program Office would now advise on a location to establish a state of the art AWD System Centre which will house up to 200 personnel working on the development and through life support of the vessels.

The vessels, which are to be introduced into service from 2013, will be equipped with the AEGIS Combat System capable of detecting hostile aircraft and missiles at ranges in excess of 150 kilometres.

The AWDs will also have an anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability, as well as the ability to embark a helicopter at sea.