Once again Australia prepares for war, this time with a new class of warship, called light frigates or corvettes. They have just been announced by the federal government. 84 years ago a class of corvettes was announced by the government – it’s corvette time again, or should we call it, playing catch-up with Defence. But these new ships will be too late and too few.

In September 1939 Australia was a country unprepared for war in many ways and would be for years. Nevertheless, in February 1940 it commenced a ship-building program which would be the biggest in the country’s history. Fifty-six ships were built of the Bathurst-class, to reach an average of one vessel produced every 26 days.

It was a pity it wasn’t matched in other ways. Despite the Battle of Britain being fought in 1940, there were none of the superb Spitfire and Hurricane fighters built in Australia. When the Japanese arrived with their aircraft carriers, the entire air defence of Darwin was flown by ten United States Army fighters. Nine were shot down and four pilots died. It was to get worse. Submarine-launched reconnaissance aircraft, clearly marked as Japanese, overflew eastern coast capital cities, and no one fired a shot at them. Midget submarines raided Sydney Harbour with impunity.

Now we’re in much the same situation. Years of neglect have left us with a nuclear submarine program that won’t see the first HMAS boat for several years. We have the Hunter-class frigate program, but instead of nine ships we will get six. And now we will get a new class of ship described either as corvettes or light frigates.

Warship descriptions can be annoyingly vague. An aircraft carrier or a submarine is definitive enough, but what is the difference between a destroyer and a frigate for example?

In the second world war, the descriptions were a bit like this:

– Battleships: heavily armoured, heavy guns

– Battlecruisers: armoured, faster, heavy guns

– Cruisers: lightly armoured, faster, medium guns, torpedoes

– Destroyers: fastest, manoeuvrable, light guns, torpedoes, depth charges to attack submarines

– Corvettes: slower, manoeuvrable, light guns, depth charges

Patrol boats appeared, although some navies – the United States, for example – had them in the second world war; small and very fast. The term frigate was resurrected after World War II by some countries to describe something in between corvettes and destroyers.

Warship descriptions can be manipulated to build something so as not to alarm a potential enemy with whom you’re on doubtful terms. The British in the 1960s for example announced they were building a class of ‘through-deck cruisers’ which were in reality aircraft carriers.

Modern ships don’t use armour any more. Guns, although useful especially for shore bombardment to support army operations, have been relegated to a usual one per vessel. It is the age of the missile, and these new ships will be so armed. It looks as if a helicopter will be carried, essential for submarine hunting.

But as usual they won’t be enough and they may be too late. And there is the usual insistence we must build some ourselves. Having a home-grown naval ship-build industry is a great idea, but not if it is allowed to plunge into disrepair and dissolution, which is what happened with the Collins-class program, which saw its last submarine become operational in 2003. Just buy a proven design off the overseas shelf please!

One of the major problems in the forces though is personnel. There are not enough, and in the Navy, not enough people going to sea. Government could fix that, but they aren’t decisive enough to do it. Simply remove income tax on all Defence personnel, and regarding the sea duty allowances for the Navy – triple them, or remove income tax liability for days at sea. And how about preferred immigration status for anyone willing to join up from suitable overseas countries?

The Bathurst-class build was the largest single ship building program in the history of the country.

It was not the only World War II ship-building program Australia saw – much bigger destroyers were also built. A new build will be nowhere near that – government sources say the first light frigate/corvette will be in service by the end of the decade and expects eight of eleven to be built here. Hardly up to the Bathurst-class schedule.

Those World War II corvettes were small but efficient. They had sonar and were designed to hunt submarines. HMAS Deloraine did just that when she sank the RAN’s first Japanese submarine kill outside Darwin. The 80-man I-124 remains there today. The Bathursts initially had no radar but that was added – it made them roll more, and they were now more crowded with the necessary technical ratings added. Two 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns were fitted; they were soon found not to be sufficient against air attack and another was added. It was with such a gun that Teddy Sheean earned the Navy’s first and only Victoria Cross as HMAS Armidale sank under him – sadly it took 78 years for it to be awarded.

The Navy might do well to call the new class of ships the Sheean-class, and then name the rest after some of the best of the numerous heroes of the Navy, rather than the oft-used innocuous rivers or bays. Ron Taylor of HMAS Yarra would be a good second ship name source – despite fighting to the last as Sheean did he received nothing. It’s a sad world sometimes.

All up we are seeing what happens when government after government neglects defence, just as they did before the second world war. At least then the government had the Great Depression to justly blame. Now Australia has a booming economy, and it’s just a lack of direction that is to blame. Disgracefully, as shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie has pointed out, the Houthi rebels probably have a better strike capability than ours.

We spend liberally on foreign aid – around five billion a year, more than the proposed entire build cost for the corvette program. We must change direction and speed up defence acquisitions and decisions before it’s too late.

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