Thursday 5 January 2012

Australia should build own subs, report says

 
AN AMERICAN military think tank says Australia should design and build its own submarine despite concluding the best thing about the current Collins class is its occupational health and safety program.
A report into ''Australia's domestic submarine design capabilities'' by the Rand Corporation recommends the government draw a ''core group of technical personnel'' from the workforce sustaining the Collins class submarines to start the project.

The Rand analysis, contained in a 254-page report, was carried out between November 2009 and February 2010, and was made public last month.

''The fact they [Defence] have released it at all should be seen as evidence the shape of the future submarine is being thought about seriously,'' the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Andrew Davies said.

The report was commissioned shortly after the release of the 2009 Defence white paper that called for a new fleet of 12 submarines to be designed and built in Adelaide.

The Rand report's release follows that of the Coles Review into the sustainment problems that have crippled the Collins class submarines, which was made public in mid-December.

A second Rand Corporation report, ''Learning from experience: lessons from Australia's Collins submarine program'', was made public at the same time.

''The Royal Australian Navy's submarine safety program is one of the Collins program's most successful aspects,'' that report found.

A critic of long-standing delays in the future submarine program, Professor Ross Babbage, said the time taken to make the capability report public was indicative of a ''slow motion'' approach.
He believes that instead of spending up to $40 billion on a locally built fleet of submarines, Australia should buy or lease US-built Virginia class nuclear submarines.

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