When Australia decided to buy a submarine to replace the existing Collins class model, they chose one from French company DCNS (now Naval Group).
The chosen model was a nuclear submarine converted to diesel-electric propulsion because it was quieter than one with propellers. After the announcement, the decision was changed to buy an all-new design, with propellers, thus rather negating the original strategy. https://johnmenadue.com/jon-stanford-australias-future-submarine-part-3-of-3-responding-to-the-criticisms/ Now they have gone for an American or British model that will be built in Australia. This will cost a lot more money and take longer than a very valid alternative which is to buy an off the shelf model from Japan, a decision that was seriously considered way back in 2014 and which the USA supported. https://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/insights/Australias-Next-Submarine-Did-We-Get-It-Right The author of the article favoured ditching the French deal well over a year ago. Ad-man Scotty decided then to stick with the status quo. This sorry saga demonstrates the inability of the politicians to make good technology decisions - they let politics override national security. Just like the vaccine problems it's a case of too little, too late. -- Regards brd Bernard Robertson-Dunn Canberra Australia email: [email protected] _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
