Thales Australia is planning a substantial overhaul of its Carrington site if it wins a contract to develop unmanned minehunter vessels for the Royal Australian Navy.
The French multinational is part of a joint venture involving Hunter firm BlueZone Group and other small- to medium-sized firms bidding for the navy's mine countermeasures contract, dubbed SEA 1905.
The navy could announce the winning tender in the next two weeks.
Thales is working on a master plan for its Carrington ship building and maintenance precinct, which it says will bring together the project partners at one site and inject $40 million and 100 jobs into the Hunter economy.
The autonomous minehunters, which can also map underwater terrain and search for nuclear-powered submarines, will replace the Huon-class minehunters built at Carrington by Australian Defence Industries from 1994 to 2003.
Defence Minister Richard Marles visited BlueZone during a trip to the Hunter last week.
Thales said Carrington was an "ideal" location for the minehunter program because it offered rapid access to shallow and deep water for team trials.
"The purpose-built facility will also support collaboration across research institutions, SME partners and key industrial partners to establish future sovereign technology pathways for the development and integration of autonomous vessels in support of Australia's nuclear deterrence capability," the company said.
Thales Australia's underwater systems vice-president, Troy Stephen, said Newcastle and the Hunter had been a "stalwart" of the navy's mine countermeasure capability.
"Carrington is the ideal location to develop and deliver the next generation of sovereign mine warfare capability for the RAN, providing the ideal test and evaluation environment whilst generating significant investment in local SMEs and jobs in the region," he said.
