Wave good-bye to trust in Abbott-government Defence planning

And here you go.

FOR several months last year, the federal government single-mindedly pursued a plan, driven largely from Tony Abbott’s office­, to buy the navy’s new submarines from Japan.

The Australian has been told that process reached the point where media releases were prepared but were never sent out.

Senior Defence officials made a number of trips to Japan to discuss the possibility of Australia buying a fleet of submarines evolved from Japan’s successful Soryu-class boats.

They were to be built by Japan­ese designer-builders Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

As The Australian wrote at the time, that became a real prospect because of the close relationship that quickly developed between the Prime Minister and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe.

When Mr Abbott asked if Japan could help with the project, despite its pacifist constit­ution, Mr Abe offered to build Australia a whole submarine.

Most of the work was to have been done in Japan.

This has risk all over it.

A Soryu has around half the range of a Collins sub. So that breaks the requirement.

The Japanese Soryu doesn't do mid-life refurbishment like the Collins. Which breaks the spin from the ADF and others that 2/3s of the total expense will be on Australian workers.

The Japanese submarines use a revolutionary air-independent propulsion system, the Stirling engine, which allows them to oper­ate deeply for well over two weeks without having to surface or to run near the surface to recharge their batteries.

It isn't "revolutionary". It isn't "new". It is interesting and potentially useful but consider:

AIP takes up space and weight in a new design. What are the trade-offs in a SEA-1000 requirement that wants everything? A requirement that tries to meet that done by an American, nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Virginia-class?

Depending on how it is put in the boat, AIP can have its own distinctive sound signature.

It requires more complexity for maintenance and operations. That includes more specialists.

I think AIP is great but do consider it for the right reasons not the wrong ones or because it is wrongly thought that it is "new" or "revolutionary".

Of interest, new-build Soyru boats will be delivered without AIP. Japan has decided to move away from that "new" and "revolutionary" thing so wanted by dilettantes in the Entrenched Defence Bureaucracy tied to the Abbott Government. Also, battery technology on new Soyru boats will be different: Lithium-ion.

The Australian has been told that the government is now looking at all three options and concerns­ in local and inter­national shipbuilding circles that the so-called competitive evaluation process could be a sham are groundless.

Sure.

Crickets-chirping from the Abbott fan-base in regard to the wanted American Combat system, written in as a requirement for the Collins replacement, that doesn't work all that well.

Finally, how can we have confidence in the top RAN leadership to advise government on a tens-of-billions of dollars commitment when they don't even know what kinds of sub capability exist out in the world?

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Open thread, replacing the Australian Collins Submarine

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