Six years in a leaky boat: the plan to fix an ailing navy

However, the government argues that it will have acquired four warships by 2034, compared to one under the Coalition's shipbuilding plan, when the first of the Hunter-class frigates is due to enter service. The build-up of the surface fleet, coupled with the arrival of Australian-flagged nuclear-powered submarines in the early 2030s, supports a view that Australia needs a strong military to raise the costs for an adversary to threaten Australian interests. "We can obviously look over the past and see that what is happening is that China is engaged in the biggest conventional military buildup in the world since the…