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| DCNS Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A |
BY JESSE JOHNSON AND REIJI YOSHIDA
In a stunning reversal of fortunes, Japan — the onetime front-runner in the multibillion-dollar tender to build Australia’s next-generation submarine — failed in its bid to assemble the vessels, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Tuesday.
Turnbull said the submarines will be built in Australia by France’s state-controlled naval contractor DCNS.
“Defence Department experts were unequivocal — the French offer best represented the capabilities needed to meet Australia’s unique needs,” Turnbull said at a news conference.
The announcement, which came after media leaks revealed last week that Japan had effectively been eliminated from the bidding process, throws the future of Tokyo’s fledgling weapons-export program in doubt.
But the biggest question remains: How did Japan go from first to worst?
According to experts, a perfect storm of factors helped sink the deal, which would have been Japan’s first large-scale weapons export agreement in decades after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved new rules in April 2014, ending an almost 50-year self-imposed ban on the practice.
While media reports had played up technological risks in buying Japan’s Soryu-class subs to replace its aging Collins-class vessels, experts said Australia’s domestic politics — with an election slated for July — likely played a more deciding factor.
“I think we cannot deny that domestic politics played a role, given the timing of the sub decision,” said Corey Wallace, a security policy analyst at the Graduate School of East Asian Studies at Freie Universitat, Berlin.
For Turnbull, who touted a mantra of “Australian jobs and Australian steel” during Tuesday’s news conference in the South Australian shipbuilding hub of Adelaide, the rapidly changing political environment was key, “given the difficulties the current administration might have in the state during the election,” Wallace said.
With the French pick, he secured firm promises that work on the subs would be done domestically with domestic materials — all ahead of the key poll.
Read the full story at Japan Times