The pledge, which forms part of the Continuous Naval Shipbuilding program, is expected to pave the way for a request for tender open to industry stakeholders in Sydney.

According to Dutton, the project would help “mitigate the boom-and-bust cycle”, helping to deliver long-term work packages and remove barriers to entry for SMEs.

“By adopting this new approach, the Morrison government is opening up opportunities for local small and medium enterprises to be involved in building our sovereign defence industry and reducing administration for the workforce, making it easier to do business with Defence,” he said.

The proposed Regional Maintenance Centre East is expected to initially support the three Hobart Class destroyers and HMAS Choules, before supporting other Sydney-based platforms.

These include the RAN’s Canberra Class landing helicopter dock ships and landing craft, one Supply Class auxiliary oiler and two Anzac Class frigates.

Regional Maintenance Centre East is scheduled to be operational by mid-2024.

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This latest announcement builds on previous commitments to deliver regional maintenance centres in Cairns, Darwin and Henderson.

“This tender will see the government meet its commitment to the establishment of four regional maintenance centres in a national network to provide continuous sustainment of the Navy’s fleet around Australia,” the minister added.

“The successful tenderer for this maintenance centre will play an integral role in planning, managing and delivering maintenance at Garden Island, the home of Navy’s major fleet units and a strategic asset for delivery of naval capability.”

The Sydney-based centre is tipped to generate approximately $1 billion into the Sydney region economy over the next five years and takes the initial investment across the network of four regional maintenance centres to approximately $1.327 billion.

“As we have seen with other regional maintenance centres, the provision of this crucial sustainment work provides significant long-term job opportunities for direct and indirect workforce, with the number of workers rising as the scope of services increases over the initial five-year period of the contract,” Minister Dutton added.

“This another piece of the record $270 billion investment by the Morrison government to support the men and women of the Australian Defence Force.”

[Related: Tasmanian defence facilities to receive $30m boost ]

Charbel Kadib

News Editor – Defence and Security, Momentum Media

Prior to joining the defence and aerospace team in 2020, Charbel was news editor of The Adviser and Mortgage Business, where he covered developments in the banking and financial services sector for three years. Charbel has a keen interest in geopolitics and international relations, graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a double major in politics and journalism. Charbel has also completed internships with The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts and public relations agency Fifty Acres.