Call for helicopter-friendly patrol boats

Australia needs to ensure its new fleet of 12 offshore patrol vessels be helicopter-friendly, according to a new Australian Strategic Policy report.

The three-way race to design the $3 billion project is between two German companies and a Dutch firm, with an announcement expected shortly from Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.

The Dutch Damen bid is for a 68-metre boat while the German Lurssen and Fassmer designs are both 80 metres long.

ASPI's Ben Coleman argued helicopter capability - while not cheap - had considerable benefits for maritime roles such as personnel boarding operations, search and rescue, medical evacuation, and general transport.

He said it seemed risky to design the project capability requirements based on this low level of potential threat.

"Perhaps this is a case of preparing to fight the last war by focusing on the kind of border protection tasks that typify the past two decades," he said, adding those tasks have involved a low level of threat from small fishing vessels, only low levels of non co-operation and no risk of disciplined or lethal force.

He pointed to the 2003 Pong Su incident in which a North Korean freighter tried to smuggle heroin into Australia.

The federal government has stipulated the offshore patrol vessels will be built in Adelaide initially from 2018 and then in Perth from 2020.

Mr Coleman said there was no real benefit to the project in splitting the build, as it will inevitably introduce inefficiencies into the construction process and increase the cost.