World

Australia, Japan sign contracts on $10b warship deal

By AAP Newswire

Apr 18, 2026

A Mogami-class stealth frigate (file image) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will supply Australia's navy with Mogami-class frigates from 2029. -AP

Australia and Japan have signed contracts launching their landmark $A10 billion deal ‌to supply Australia with warships, Tokyo's most consequential military sale since ‌ending a military export ban in 2014.

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Defence Ministers Richard Marles and ‌Shinjiro Koizumi signed a memorandum "reaffirming the Australian and Japanese governments' shared commitment to the successful delivery" of the warships, Marles said in a statement on Saturday.

The deal struck in August anchors Japan's push ‌away from ‌its postwar pacifism ⁠to forge security ties beyond its alliance with the US to counter China.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is to supply the Royal Australian Navy with three upgraded Mogami-class multi-role frigates built in Japan from 2029. Eight more frigates will be built ⁠in Australia.

Japan's Defence Ministry posted ‌on X that Koizumi and Marles welcomed the "conclusion of contracts for General Purpose Frigates, ‌and confirmed to further strengthen bilateral defense ties" in the signing in Melbourne.

Contracts were signed for the first three frigates, to be built in Japan, before there was a "transition to an onshore build" at the Henderson shipyard near Perth ‌in Western Australia, Marles said.

Australia plans to deploy the ships - designed to hunt submarines, strike surface ships and provide air defence - to defend critical maritime trade routes and its northern approaches in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where China's military footprint is expanding.