Pyne tours visiting Italian frigate

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has toured an Italian built military vessel in South Australia, which is one of the designs being considered in a $35 billion build of nine anti-submarine warfare frigates.

The Italian FREMM frigate has entered into a tender process as well as vessels built by Britain's BAE Systems and Spain's Navantia, which Mr Pyne expects will also tour Australia at some stage.

Mr Pyne told reporters in Adelaide that no matter what company wins the tender, the vast majority of the work will be done in South Australia and other parts of Australia, but some high-end technical aspects will be built overseas.