Think Tank: Diving deeper into SEA 1000 - life spans and design choices

Kym Bergmann

James Goldrick’s recent post for The Strategist shows that many classes of submarine remain in service for a period of 30–40 years. By this calculation alone, the Collins Class won’t need to retire until the mid-2030s, especially if they were to undergo a life-of-type extension program. However, the real measure of the longevity of a submarine isn’t its age in years but rather the number of deep dives it has performed.

Only the RAN knows exactly how many times each Collins Class has reached its highly classified maximum depth and has therefore been compressed close to its design limits, but it’s safe to assume that they have a lot of remaining margin. That’s because they were designed to go very deep indeed . Diving depth is dependent on a number of factors, including the ‘roundness’ of the hull, because the more perfect it is, the greater is the ability for enormous pressures to be distributed absolutely evenly across its surface. A great deal of effort was expended on this regarding the Collins, as well as the composition of the steel used for construction.

Think Tank: Twelve Future Submarines: a long, circuitous journey

David Feeney

After two prime ministers, three defence ministers, three assistant defence ministers and two parliamentary secretaries—and a 12 month delay—we welcome today’s release of the Defence White Paper.

We also support the Government’s decision to deliver on its promise of Defence funding to 2% of GDP. This keeps faith with Labor’s commitment for 2%, and Bill Shorten’s commitment to support any realistic and practical proposal to achieve that target.

The Turnbull Government is now telling Australians that it intends to support the acquisition of twelve Future Submarines.

It’s been a tortured road. In 2013, then-Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, pledged to support Labor’s resolve to build an expanded submarine fleet, and to build it in Adelaide. If the Liberal Government had stopped there, they would have saved all of us a lot of pain and unnecessary costs.

Instead, in early 2014 the Liberal Government began exploring ‘Option J’, the acquisition of our Future Submarines from Japan. Tony Abbott’s ‘Captain’s Call’, suspected to be a result of discussions between him and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meant breaking another election commitment, and abandoning the Australian submarine enterprise, which has been centred in Adelaide since the 1980s.

News Story: DCNS Prepares Final Offer for Australian Sub Tender

CGI of the DCNS Shortfin Barracuda

By Pierre Tran

PARIS — DCNS filed a draft proposal at the end of September and aims to submit a final offer at the end of November in Australia’s tender for a new class of attack submarines, reported to be worth Aus $50 billion (US $36.3 billion), a spokesperson for the French naval shipbuilder said.

Technology transfer will be part of the French offer of the concept vessel Shortfin Barracuda, a diesel-electric version of the Barracuda nuclear-powered attack submarine being built for the French Navy.

“The transfer of technology will be complete, to allow Australia to meet its objective of sovereignty and independence,” the DCNS spokesperson said.

Australia’s Sea 1000 project to replace the Collins submarines has attracted competing bids from DCNS, a Japanese offer from Mitsubishi Heavy Industry and Kawasaki Shipbuilding, and German specialist ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. The tender is for six to 12 units.

A selection is expected by the middle of 2016, the spokesperson said.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

Editorial: Could Saab Upgrade Australia’s Collins-class Submarine as a Stopgap Measure?

Royal Australian Navy Collins class Submarine

By Benjamin David Baker

The Swedish company Saab Kockums offers to upgrade Australia’s subs while Canberra decides who will replace them. Is it worth it?

As previously reported by the Diplomat, Australia is still trying to figure out which submarines will replace its Collins-class boats. The three contenders still in the so-called SEA-1000 competition are the German ThyssenKrupp’s Type 216-class, a diesel-electric version of the French Thales/DCNS Barracuda-class and a modified version of the Japanese Kawasaki Soryu-class. The first of the 6 Collins’ have been in service since the early 1990s, when they replaced the venerable Oberon-class. Although no definitive price limit has been set, the Collins replacement program has caused an intense debate in Australia, and is calculated to be the most expensive defense acquisition in country’s history.

One of the contenders to be dropped from the competition last year was Sweden’s Saab Kockums. As the Diplomat’s Franz-Stefan Gady reported earlier this year, this was apparently due to Sweden’s inexperience in building advanced subs. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated that “The last Australian submarine came off the production line in about 2001 … the last Swedish submarine came off the production line in 1996, so it’s almost two decades since Sweden built a submarine.”

Saab Kockums responded that “this is not the case” and emphasizes that Sweden, “maintained a full capacity to design and build submarines both for Sweden and for export over the last 20 years.”

Read the full story at The Diplomat