Air Warfare Destroyers cursed by infighting, says ‘rescue report’

The confidential plan to rescue the nation’s largest defence project, the $8.5 billion construction of Air Warfare Destroyers, has been sabotaged by bitter infighting, risking a fresh blowout in costs and casting a pall over the future of naval shipbuilding in Australia.

The AWD rescue report, commissioned by the government and obtained by The Australian, warned in April that failure to take action to fix the troubled program within six months would trigger fresh delays and costs, and would “debilitate” the future of naval shipbuilding.

Almost eight months later, the key recommendations of the plan — written by former US Navy secretary Don Winter and the former Aus­tralian shipbuilder John White — have not been implemented because of infighting ­between government departments, defence contractors and the ship’s Spanish designer.

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