Australia, Japan sign contracts to start $7 billion warship deal

SYDNEY, April 18 (Reuters) - Australia and Japan signed contracts on Saturday launching their landmark A$10 billion ($7 billion) deal to supply Australia with warships, Tokyo's most consequential military sale since ending a military export ban in 2014.

Defence Ministers Richard Marles and Shinjiro Koizumi signed a memorandum "reaffirming the Australian and Japanese governments' shared commitment to the successful delivery" of the warships, Marles said in a statement.

The deal struck in August anchors Japan's push away from its postwar pacifism to forge security ties beyond its alliance with the U.S. to counter China.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is to supply the Royal Australian Navy with three upgraded Mogami-class multi-role frigates built in Japan from 2029. Eight more frigates will be built in Australia.

Japan's Defence Ministry posted on X that Koizumi and Marles welcomed the "conclusion of contracts for General Purpose Frigates, and confirmed to further strengthen bilateral defense ties" in the signing in Melbourne.

Contracts were signed for the first three frigates, to be built in Japan, before there is a "transition to an onshore build" at the Henderson shipyard near Perth in Western Australia, Marles said.

Australia plans to deploy the ships - designed to hunt submarines, strike surface ships and provide air defence - to defend critical maritime trade routes and its northern approaches in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where China's military footprint is expanding.

($1 = 1.3955 Australian dollars)