$3b Navy contract decision for WA due soon

The chief of Perth company Austal says he expects to know within weeks if the company has won a $3 billion military shipbuilding contract considered vital for WA's post-mining boom economy.

The federal government is expected to announce soon whether it will award the contract to Austal and its German partners Fassmer or the rival bid involving Germans Luerssen, Damen, of the Netherlands and the Australian joint venture of Civmec and ASC.

Whoever wins, the first two Australian Navy offshore patrol vessels will be built in Adelaide, with the remaining 10 being built in WA at Henderson.

The WA government was left fuming when the Commonwealth gave most of its $90 billion shipbuilding program work to South Australia last year but has has since appointed a Defence West Advocate, retired Rear Admiral Raydon Gates, to lobby Canberra for more of the program and other work.

Winning the offshore patrol vessel work would set up Austal for the next 15 to 20 years and allow it to grow further in WA, chief executive David Singleton said.

He said he expected to know by the end of the month.

"This is the single most important contract that the Henderson business has ever bid for and will ever bid for," he told 6PR radio on Thursday.

"The reasons for it is this is a 15 to 20-year continuous shipbuilding program put together by the government for exactly the purpose of preventing the highs and lows in manufacturing schedules over the next period of time and so it creates certainty through the business.

"This is the backbone on which we will continue to win export orders that build on top of the offshore patrol vessel program.

"If we win the OPB program as well, just imagine what that will do for Western Australia and for these exports we've been winning consistently for 29 years."