The next generation of Australia's navy ships will be built in the country, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Tuesday, amid a row over foreign firms bidding for military contracts, dpa reported. "Australia's shipbuilding workforce will build Navy's Future Frigates and Offshore Patrol Vessels," he said in an online statement. Australia has a 65-billion-US-dollar plan to build new frigates, submarines and corvette patrol vessels over the next 20 years, its largest-ever naval procurement project. Abbott said he was committed to Adelaide's ship-building industry and brought forward the building of corvette boats by two years to 2018 and frigates to start in 2020, three years earlier than planned. The project is expected to create some 2,500 jobs.
