OPINION | A welcome wildcat? Austal, AUKUS and an ownership mud wrestle

The US Government cares, too. Austal is also building modules for the US Navy Virginia-class and Columbia-class nuclear-powered submarines at its yard in Mobile, Alabama, along with other US Navy and US Coast Guard contracts.

Austal has had some challenges shifting to steel production in Alabama, with contract losses and construction delays affecting some of this US Government work and putting pressure on the company's finances. Austal needs to not just deliver on its current US contracts but to recover fast and well. That’s because of the opportunity for the company to play a bigger role in a rebuilt US national shipbuilding sector for both surface ships and submarines, and potentially contribute to the long term AUKUS program.

This complicated picture got more tangled, though, with the breakthrough decision in 2025 by the Australian Government to choose Japan’s Mogami-class frigate for the RAN. That gave Tokyo a keen interest in who makes the decisions around the Austal boardroom and who inside the company sees what data, when, about Mitsubishi’s cutting edge Mogami frigate design.

Right now, Austal is a publicly listed company that owns and controls both its Australian and US operations. Twiggy Forrest and South Korea’s Hanwha Group are its two major shareholders, Mr Forrest holding just over 19 per cent of its shares, with Hanwha currently owning just under 10 per cent but cleared by Treasurer Jim Chalmers last December to increase its holding to just under 20 per cent.