New Australian warship has 14,000 defects: media

Australia's newest and largest warship is riddled with more than 14,000 minor defects forcing a seven-month delay in its completion, local media reported on Tuesday.

Problems with the 1.5 billion AU dollars (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) amphibious assault ship HMAS Canberra are blamed on low productivity, poor skills and a shortage of trained supervisors, the Defense Department said.

The Australian newspaper reported that more than 14,000 so- called "defects" were discovered about two years ago and are mostly minor. The most serious problems, including electrical failures, leaking seals, unaligned pods and corrosion in propellers, are believed to have been already fixed.

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