By Rowan Moffitt*
Several recent articles, including one last week by the US Studies Centre’s Peter Dean, have promoted the need for corvettes for the Royal Australian Navy. They merit a response. (Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The Strategist.)
Dean writes that the defence strategic review calls for an enhanced lethality surface fleet and a greater number of Tier 2 surface combatants. What is a Tier 2 surface combatant? It’s not a naval term. It defines nothing and means nothing, except relatively. Paul Dibb’s defence capability review almost 40 years ago used the concept of tiered naval capability for the first time. Eight Anzac-class frigates were the result.
