| Osborne Naval Shipyard | |
| Location Map: | Australia#Australia South Australia#Australia Greater Adelaide |
| Location: | Osborne, Adelaide |
| Industry: | shipbuilding |
| Products: | Royal Australian Navy ships |
| Owner: | Australian Naval Infrastructure (ANI)[1] |
The Osborne Naval Shipyard is a Royal Australian Navy multi-user facility on the Lefevre Peninsula, at Osborne, South Australia. It is the largest and most advanced shipbuilding facility in Australia. The facility has produced a range of major surface combatants and submerged vessels such as Destroyers, Frigates, Patrol boats and Submarines for the Royal Australian Navy fleet.
The facility was established in 1987 for the Australian Submarine Corporation to construct six Collins-Class submarines. Since then, it has expanded significantly, incorporating a vast array of technology and facilities as the main supplier of naval vessels to the RAN. The Osborne Naval Shipyard is widely regarded as one of the most technologically advanced naval ship building facilities in the world, with "digital twin" ship building methods. The shipyard will notably be constructing SSN-AUKUS submarines from 2030s onwards, as the primary manufacturing hub of the trilateral AUKUS announcement in 2021. The facility currently administers Collins-class submarine full-cycle docking and 'Life of Type' extension program, as well as the controversial Hunter-class frigate program and Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels.
As of 2024, significant expansions of the facility are under construction to triple the size of the shipyard to accommodate SSN-AUKUS submarine construction. Once completed, the facility will be one of only a handful across the world which will have the capacity to produce large surface combatant vessels and nuclear-powered submarines simultaneously. According to preliminary plans for the new shipyard, Osborne will receive a third shiplift and potentially a graving dock to the north of the site for construction and maintance of SSN-AUKUS submarines.[2] [3]
The ship building precinct includes a number of discrete facilities, as it has grown over the time it has existed.
The Government of South Australia built a "common user facility" that includes a wharf and Shiplift constructed between 2007 and 2010, known as Techport Australia. It was designed by Aurecon and constructed by McConnell Dowell and Built Environs.[4] Techport was sold by the state government to the Federal Government in 2017 for .[5]
The shiplift was supplied by Rolls-Royce and is long and wide. It can lift from a water depth of . It is designed to allow for future expansion to length and lifting capacity of .[4]
Between 2017 and 2020, an extension was built behind Osborne South to construct the Hunter-class frigates. The largest building in the new complex is known as Building 22, and is high with a footprint of, large enough for assembly of two frigates other than the upper superstructure.[6]
In September 2021, the Morrison government scrapped the French multi-billion dollar deal to build the Attack-class submarines.[7] Instead signing a monumental agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States to build 8 SSN-AUKUS submarines at the Osborne Naval Shipyard Adelaide for the Royal Australian Navy. The first submarine is expected in the early 2030s.
November 2023 the Australian government performed a land swap with the state government, trading land on three nearby military sites for 60 acres of land around Osborne Naval Shipyard for the construction of the nuclear submarine shipyard facilities and a workforce skills training centre, the federal government expect spades in the ground for the construction of site access roads and utilities diversions before the end of 2023.[8]
The list of ships constructed at the Osborne facility include: