US Company Wins Australian Defence Contract

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The Australian Federal Government has chosen the US company Gibbs & Cox as the preferred designer for the Australian Navy's Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs) - one of Australia's largest and most complex Defence projects worth up to $6 billion. Gibbs & Cox now joins a team made up of ASC Shipbuilder Pty Ltd, who has been selected to build the AWDs, and Raytheon Australia, selected as the Combat System-System Engineer. Gibbs & Cox, a United States based company, was chosen through a competitive tender evaluation process that also included German company Blohm + Voss and Spanish company Navantia. The selection of Gibbs and Cox as platform designer now completes the team whose responsibility it is to deliver the project. The Government made the decision after accepting the recommendation of the Source Selection Board on the basis that Gibbs & Cox offered a superior bid in terms of value for money. All three companies presented competitive bids and showed themselves to be very competent naval ship designers. Bids were evaluated against a wide range of criteria.

The Gibbs & Cox evolved design will now compete with an Australianised version of Spain's existing F100 ship design, and will be further considered by the Government as part of the next phase of the project. The construction of the Air Warfare Destroyers will be one of the most significant shipbuilding projects undertaken in Australia to date, and will provide enormous opportunities for Australian industry and its partners. The Government has provided $455 million towards the current phase of the project which includes further design work, workforce skilling, initial infrastructure investment and facilities construction. The ship will be interoperable with the United States and other Coalition partners.

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David

david.taylor@agarcarlyon.com