Australia Chooses French Design for Future Submarine
Nigel Pittaway
MELBOURNE, Australia – France's DCNS has won the Australian Future Submarine contract, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Tuesday.
The choice of the Shortfin Barracuda design surprised many observers, as DCNS has been in a hard-fought competition with Germany's Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems and the Government of Japan to build 12 submarines for the Royal Australian Navy for Australian $50 billion (US $38.5 billion). Word leaked out over the past few days that the Japanese had been ruled out.
The Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A is a slightly smaller, conventionally-powered derivative of the French Navy’s nuclear-powered Barracuda attack submarine. Detail design work is set to begin later this year.
“DCNS has been selected as our preferred international partner for the design of 12 Future Submarines, subject to further discussions on commercial matters,” the prime minister said in an official statement.
Turnbull said that the decision was driven by DCNS’ ability to best meet Australia’s requirements for a long-range, conventionally-powered submarine to replace the Royal Australian Navy’s six Collins Class boats.
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France Celebrates ‘Historic’ Submarine Win in Australia
Pierre Tran
PARIS – France welcomed Australia’s “historic” pick of DCNS for exclusive negotiations for the Australian $50 billion ($38.7 billion), Future Submarine program, and President François Hollande made a visit to the office of the naval shipbuilder in the French capital.
“This is an historic program, the largest weapons export program our country has ever undertaken,” the Elysée president’s office said in a statement. The selection was possible due to a government-to-government agreement at a "strategic level" of over 50 years.
Australia’s selection opens negotiations for a three-year submarine design contract expected to be concluded at the end of this year or early 2017, a DCNS executive said.
“This decision marks the beginning of a process of exclusive negotiations which should lead to a contract signing in 2017,” said Hélène Masson, senior research fellow at the Fondation de Récherche Stratégique think tank. “France has a strong image of technological and industrial independence, the corner stone of French arms policy over the last 50 years, particularly in submarines.”
DCNS won with its Shortfin Barracuda A1 submarine design, a conventionally-powered derivative of the nuclear-powered Suffren-class submarine now under construction for the French Navy.
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