Danish ships no bargain?

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 6

Danish ships no bargain?

By

DAVE WILSON

The cost of converting a suggested Danish warship alternative to the Anzac frigates into a suitable vessel for New Zealand’s use could ultimately match the cost of the Anzac ships; the Minister of Defence, Mr Tizard, warned yesterday. He made the remark as part of a detailed attack on the Danish ship idea, which has been gathering support in political circles, fostered by claims that each ship would cost only half as much as the Anzac designs. Mr Tizard countered, saying the advocates of the alternative

would have the taxpayer foot the bill for converting the fisheries patrol craft into a fully-armed, multi-purpose frigate. “The result would be a ship probably costing as much as the Anzac frigates.” Mr Tizard said supporters of the Danish ship design persistently ignored criticism of the vessel and appeared to want the country to overturn two years of investigation to buy an unproven and unsuitable ship. Only a fraction of the ship construction work promised under the Anzac project would to New Zealand industry undty the Danish

alternative. Mr Tizard said this work would probably be confined to one New Plymouth company. The Danish ship had been first described as a fisheries inspection vessel, but its advocates were now describing it as a frigate, yet this design would be too slow to catch some merchant ships in New Zealand’s area of interest. Mr Tizard said that nowhere in the proposal for the Danish ship was there provision for cost protection for the customer. “They expect the New Zealand taxpayer to pax for undeterminld development cjpts,” he said. y