Australian navy's newest boats Built in China

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The Defence Department handed the contract to a Dutch company, Damen, last year, but it’s now been revealed that the first of the tug boats was actually built at Damen’s shipyard in Changde, China—and finished just before New Year’s Eve. That vessel’s already been delivered to Darwin, and two more are on the way.

Interestingly, Damen didn’t exactly shout from the rooftops that this was happening in China. In fact, a letter from the company to Defence last year mentioned overseas supply chains but made no mention of China specifically. The letter claimed the build would offer “value-for-money” for Australia and would tap into both local and international resources.

Documents show the second tug boat should arrive by May, with a third coming before the end of 2025. According to Damen, about 47% of the contract’s value is expected to be spent in Australia—mostly covering the long-term maintenance of the vessels over their 25-year lifespan.

But here’s where things get a little more eyebrow-raising: Defence has now confirmed the boats are being built in China and then fitted out in Vietnam. Still, they insist these aren’t official Navy ships. Instead, they'll be operated by civilians, although Defence reserves the right to crew them in “rare situations,” like emergencies.

So why the secrecy? That’s what the Opposition wants to know. Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie says Richard Marles, the Defence Minister, needs to explain exactly what he knew—and whether he signed off on building military-support vessels in a Chinese shipyard.

“Did Marles approve this himself, or was he just not paying attention?” Hastie asked. “And what steps are being taken to protect national security?”

Marles hasn’t commented yet, but the issue is already drawing comparisons to 2016, when Labor slammed the Coalition for outsourcing the manufacturing of Australian Army uniforms to China, even though the contract was technically with a local company.

It’s a bit of a twist too, because Damen was recently picked to provide the design for a whole new Landing Craft Heavy fleet for the ADF—eight of which will be built in Australia by Austal in Western Australia.

So, while these tugs might not technically be Navy vessels, they are supporting the Navy—and now, they’re raising some pretty big questions about transparency, local industry support, and national security.

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