![]() “From six you have two ready to go at any time.” That’s the law of three, he says. “We’re a two-ocean country and we need six on each coast,” he says. “The bigger it is, the more crew it carries and the more expensive it is to own.”īriggs points to the government’s emphasis on “at least” eight boats. Submarine analyst and past president of the Submarine Institute of Australia, rear admiral (ret’d) Peter Briggs, says the SSN(R) is the frontrunner. Despite airing those misgivings, Dutton promised to support the government’s eventual decision. The Labor government rebuked Dutton for his “irresponsible” public interventions – saying he was basing his views on out-of-date advice – and said it was important that Aukus remain a bipartisan endeavour. “I worry that if the government has taken a decision to go for a cheaper design that it will delay the delivery of those submarines,” Dutton said on Wednesday. He said he believed the US Virginia class was the best choice for Australia because it was least risky and could be ready soonest. “It’s a price thing … it’s riskier as well because you’re doing something that hasn’t been done before.”ĭutton, the former Coalition defence minister, used a series of media conferences and interviews this week to fire a pre-emptive warning shot against going for a new UK design. “We’ve been down the road before of buying highly bespoke capabilities for our forces, which no one else has and it’s ended in disaster.” “The open question in my mind is whether that’s some version of the SSN(X) or SSN(R) or is it a new thing altogether,” he says.Ī totally new design would set off warning lights, he says, pointing to the problems Australia has had with Sea Sprite helicopters, the Collins class and the Attack class. Increasingly the UK and Australian ministers have been hinting at a trilateral design, director of the Lowy Institute’s international security program, Sam Roggeveen, says. Some of that could conceivably happen in Australia if our shipbuilding capabilities are brought up to speed and capacity.” “The real question is where the primary frame construction takes place. “I would have expected a US combat system to be part of this new submarine as a baseline assumption,” he says. ![]() That reinforces the idea that the endeavour will be split between the three nations. “The bottom line is that the US is not going to build the subs on its own,” Corben says. The US industrial base is almost overwhelmed constructing its own submarine fleets and there have been warnings that it could not stretch to helping Australia as well. The older ones are desperately needed by their own navies.Īnd the timelines are stretching out into the 2040s, leaving experts worried about how Australia will fill its capability gap. The newer ones, still in the design phase, are years away from even starting trials. These are not submarines that can be plucked “off the shelf” from some global supermarket. But the technical specifications are only part of the decision-making process for Australia, which is facing a capability gap as the Collins is set to retire before any new submarines are likely to be available. In times of increasing uncertainty, the Aukus nations are looking for more capability. Photograph: Thomas McDonald/British Ministry of Defence/EPA The Royal navy’s HMS Artful, the third Astute class attack submarine. They displace (or weigh) more than 10,000 tonnes and carry Tomahawk cruise missiles. These are more than 140m long and require a crew of 132. The US is currently building 19 Virginia class submarines (known as SSNs, the US classification code for nuclear-powered attack submarines – as opposed to SSBNs, which are nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines). Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundupīut both countries are also already working on their next-generation submarines. Both of their nuclear reactors are designed to last the life of the boat, which can stay submerged until food or the crew’s patience runs out. Both of their existing offerings are bigger than the Collins class, and require a bigger crew. The conversation, when it started, was about whether Australia would buy a US or a UK boat. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images French president Emmanuel Macron (second left) and Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on the deck of HMAS Waller, a Collins class submarine in Sydney in 2018.
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