The 2026 ADM South Australia Defence Summit, held at the Adelaide Convention Centre on 7 July, underscored the state’s involvement in the creation of a sovereign naval shipbuilding and sustainment capability.
In his ministerial address at the opening of the event, SA’s Minister for Defence and Space Industries noted that Adelaide is currently home to the Hunter Class Frigate build program, the Hobart-class Destroyer Capability Enhancement Program, the Collins-class submarine Life of Type Extension (LOTE) program and is also the city where Australia’s SSN-AUKUS submarines will be built.
The Australian Submarine Agency’s (ASA) Deputy Director General for nuclear submarines, David Johnson, noted that the SSN-AUKUS capability – along with the interim Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines – will form the basis of Australia’s strategy of denial in future years.
“Australia must build and undersea warfare capability that is able to work at long distances and is enduring,” he told delegates. “Working in partnerships is essential, it is a whole of nation effort,” adding that in the meantime, the Collins LOTE program will be essential to ensuring a viable undersea capability.
Johnson noted that Australia is starting at a “zero base” on its journey towards nuclear stewardship and provided details of progress made to date, including around 500 people currently working on the design and development of a facility at Osborne, which will not only build SSN-AUKUS, but be instrumental in sustaining it through its service life.
“We will need to be capable of multi-class sustainment – Collins, Virginia, and SSN-AUKUS,” he told delegates. “A great deal of effort needs to go into the planning for that.”
The Hobart DECP is being undertaken within BAE Systems Australia’s facility at Osborne and, as the Navy’s Surface Project Director Captain Dane Wilson, explained, the work is more akin to a spiral capability upgrade than a traditional Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) activity.
The program will add new weapons capability in the shape of Tomahawk, Naval Strike Missile (NSM) and a pathway to the SM-6 missile, as well as significant upgrades to the Hobart’s Aegis combat system, platform updates, comms and EW enhancements and sustainment improvements.
CAPT Wilson said that work on the first ship is progressing well and is expected to be back in the water around the end of the year, with test and evaluation activities to occur over the following 12 months.
“If we cannot defence the force, we cannot protect the force,” he said when describing the importance of the DCEP to delegates.
Commodore Scott Lockey, Director General of the Hunter Class Frigate Program provided a rare update of progress to date, beginning with an explanation of why Australia is spending so much money on the maritime domain.
“These investments support efforts to increase Australia’s self-reliance and strengthen the resilience of Australia’s sovereign defence industrial base,” he noted. “41 per cent of our Integrated Investment Plan investment is attributed to the maritime domain (and) the IIP details that $17 billion of expenditure has been approved for Hunter across the decade.”
CDRE Lockey emphasised that investment in the Hunter-class program isn’t solely about building six anti-submarine warfare frigates for the Navy, but it is also an investment in the sovereign naval shipbuilding enterprise.
In the meantime, he said that the program is on track for a keel-laying ceremony at the end of August.
“The HCF program is making great progress. The first ship is starting to take shape,” he concluded. “All our major suppliers are on contract, and we are building a skilled workforce across a range of trades and engineering disciplines to generate a sovereign shipbuilding industry.”
An in-depth report on the 2026 South Australia Defence Summit will appear in the September/October issue of ADM.