Let's not start worrying on the basis of a story in that well known lover of Defence projects and all to do with them, the AFR. Firstly, the story is not sourced in any way and it's from the AFR!! Very good on financial stuff, not noted for their commentary on anything else, particularly Defence.
Second, from Ngati's issue; the Hobart class don't seem to have had that issue - and they took two years longer to get fully into build not because of any particular capability issue but because of commissioning a new yard and (basically) a lack of understanding of the work approaches and patterns between the two sides (Volk where are you?). ANZACs, for those that can remember back that far, had much the same problem - they got away with it by re baselining the program at least three time, something you couldn't do in the modern era. So, we might have form for overspecifying but with the exception of the SH2G(A), for which I can show scars, it doesn't normally stuff us up that much.
Construction work, albeit of a prototype block or blocks is apparently underway at Osborne, and from my (extremely limited) understanding the first of the major design reviews is supposed to be on track to be completed sometime later this year as programmed. So, a slip might happen but you certainly wouldn't take the word of AFR - and even if it did occur it wouldn't necessarily mean the sky is falling.
Second, from Ngati's issue; the Hobart class don't seem to have had that issue - and they took two years longer to get fully into build not because of any particular capability issue but because of commissioning a new yard and (basically) a lack of understanding of the work approaches and patterns between the two sides (Volk where are you?). ANZACs, for those that can remember back that far, had much the same problem - they got away with it by re baselining the program at least three time, something you couldn't do in the modern era. So, we might have form for overspecifying but with the exception of the SH2G(A), for which I can show scars, it doesn't normally stuff us up that much.
Construction work, albeit of a prototype block or blocks is apparently underway at Osborne, and from my (extremely limited) understanding the first of the major design reviews is supposed to be on track to be completed sometime later this year as programmed. So, a slip might happen but you certainly wouldn't take the word of AFR - and even if it did occur it wouldn't necessarily mean the sky is falling.