The corvettes are not, and never have been proposed as an ANZAC replacement. The only official capacity they have ever been mentioned or considered has been as replacements for patrol boats and alternatives to OPVs.
Back when the ANZACs were ordered they were criticised for being too big and too expensive for their Patrol Frigate brief. Actually everyone was knocking them, too slow, too poorly armed, not enough growth potential, too big, too heavily armed and too fast.
The thing is, they were smaller, cheaper alternatives to building high end ASW frigates. Every capability you examine is a smaller cheaper alternative to what preceded it.
The Perth/Adams class DDGs were belated replacements for the last of the RANs cruisers. I'm not saying they were specifically procured as alternatives to cruisers, but rather the replacement of the RANs prewar built cruisers and war built large destroyers (destroyer leaders/DLs), was delayed for so long that the RAN got used to not having the capability and the public forgot about it all together.
End result, the RAN needed DLGs and got fleet destroyers / DDGs, and spent their entire survice life trying to cram the required capability into them. Sound familiar?
FFGs were replacements for the cancelled DDL, which had morphed into replacements for the Daring Class large destroyers, that by default, following the acquisition of the Perth's, had become fleet destroyers. The DDL had originally been seen as a supplement to increase fleet numbers, a patrol frigate as such.
The Attack class patrol boats were meant to supplement the DDLs.
So looking at the actual requirements for the RAN, and they should have had three or four DLGs, three to five DDGs (DDG conversions of the Darings and Battles), four to twelve DEs, and sufficient DDLs to bring total combatant numbers up to twenty three. There would have been twenty patrol boats on top of this, and don't for get the three carriers to support the two ocean navy.
Every acquisition resulted in a smaller number of less capable vessels than were actually required. Every replacement program saw a lower spec ( in comparison to global standards) design selected than requirements demanded.
Every generation saw a reduction in comparative capability and often numbers.
The corvettes are not a proposed replacement for the ANZACs they are a sensible alternative to patrol boats. The replacement for the ANZACs, the Hunters, are actually the long over due replacement for the DEs. The Hobart's are three FFGs, replacing six, and the DDGs were never really replaced.
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