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| Japanese Soryu class Submarine (File Photo) |
By Mina Pollmann
Domestic factors will play just as much of a role as actual technology when it comes time to select the winning bid.
Australia’s “competitive evaluation process” is pitting Japanese, German, and French submarine builders against each other in a bid to secure a A$50 billion ($38.84 billion) contract to build six to 12 submarines for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). But the competitors – Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), and France’s state-controlled DCNS – are not competing solely on the basis of their design’s superiority, but also on the basis of how far they are willing to go to accommodate South Australian voters’ demands for jobs, and assuage the Liberal party’s concerns about their electoral viability.
Australia is looking for a long-range submarine, about 4,000-tonnes, bigger than the 3,300-tonne Collins that it currently fields. To compete against Japan’s 4,200-tonneSoryu class, TKMS is submitting a 4,000-tonne Type 216, and DCNS is offering a smaller, non-nuclear variant of its 5,300 tonne Barracuda-class submarines.
As part of the ten-month process, Australia is asking each of the competitors to submit three different plans – a plan for building all the submarines in Australia, a plan for building all the submarines abroad, and a hybrid plan that will allow for a mix of production sites.
Due to the secrecy surrounding Japanese interactions with the prime minister’s office, Tony Abbott has been accused of concluding a “secret deal” with Japan. Such charges are overblown, but Abbott’s preference for working with Japan – in part because of U.S. enthusiasm for a Australia-Japan venture – is well documented.
Read the full story at The Diplomat