May 10, 2019

How Strategically Late Might Australia's Future Submarine Be?

What are the key indicators of timeliness of Australia's Future Attack class Program? Naval Group (then DCNS) was announced as the Future Submarine Program winner in 2016. In 2016 Naval Group coined the name of the Future Submarine as the "Shortfin Barracuda".

Since then the Australian Government has announced the beginning of the the shipyard build in Osborne, Adelaide South Australia, and several contract signings.

But on timeliness we also need to look at authoritative French sources - the most important being Jean-Michel Billig.

Jean-Michel Billig, Executive Vice President Future Submarine Program, Naval Group, apparently said in Le Monde, February 11, 2019, https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2019/02/11/l-accord-franco-australien-pour-construire-douze-sous-marins-signe_5421913_3234.html : 

""the first Shortfin Barracuda will not be operational before - at best - 2038, thirteen years after the planned end of life of the Collins"".

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Pete Comment

Meanwhile in the Indo-Pacific region countries are launching much more recent conventional submarines (China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea...) than the Collins.

China's conventional submarines in particular are incorporating technologies that may not be put in Australia's Attack class. Some Chinesea (Yuan class) submarines already have Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) and soon Lithium-ion Batteries, likely making them more formidable than the Collins.

Meanwhile China's, Russia's and India's nuclear powered attack submarines (SSNs) will always be regionally superior to Australia's future Attack class (diesel fuel limited) conventional submarines.

Pete

3 comments:

  1. Knock knock,
    Who’s there ?
    Saab incorporated !
    You don’t have an A26 ERXX by any chance with all the the wish list by any chance?
    We are glad you asked, Do you want VLT with that?
    Ken Oath .

    ReplyDelete
  2. 2038? Obsolete by the time it tastes champagne.
    KQN

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Duke of York, Chancellor Phillip Hammond, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the President's daughter Ivanka Trump are also expected to attend.May, who will stand down as Conservativeleader on Friday, will then hold talks with the US President in Downing Street, when they are expected to discuss a range of issues including climate change and the Chinese tech giant Huawei, which the US has blacklisted for security reasons.
    Indian defence news

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