Australia should consider joining a European collaboration on building advanced warships to help ensure superpowers the United States and China do not leave the rest of the world behind, Italy’s defence acquisitions chief has urged.

Lieutenant-General Carlo Magrassi raised the bombshell possibility that Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri and Britain’s BAE Systems - which are competing to build Australia’s $35 billion future frigate fleet - could actually work together.

General Magrassi said the Italian and British governments had already begun discussions on creating an “Airbus of the sea” - referring to the European multinational that makes commercial and military aircraft.

Fincantieri is pitching the FREMM model frigate - pictured in Sydney last year - to Australia for its new fleet.

“Already there has been some dialogue between us and them,” he told an Australian business delegation in Rome this week. “If they allow this Airbus of the sea to conclude, at the end there will be a very big American work for this sector, quite a big European work … and China work at the same time.