Excellent article in THE AUSTRALIAN "Australia 'Captured’ By French Submarine Contract..."

THE AUSTRALIAN has maintained its lead as the mainstream media’s most authoritative source on Australian future submarine issues. Its latest article (below) on Australia cutting off its future submarine options too early, is in line with my own article “French Future SSN & SSBN Priorities Before Attack class” of February 17, 2020 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2020/02/australia-cannot-drop-french-contract.html .

THE AUSTRALIAN'S ARTICLE

·     BEN PACKHAM, THE AUSTRALIAN’S Foreign Affairs And Defence Correspondent, reports March 4, 2020  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/australia-captured-by-french-submarine-contract-shipbuilding-board-member-says/news-story/0b4e47fbfc18b4f54c07919b4382937d

"Australia ‘Captured’ By French Submarine Contract, Shipbuilding Board Member Says

The Morrison government’s Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board says the decision to hand Naval Group the $80bn Future Submarine project without a plan B has effectively left the nation “captured” by the French defence giant.

In a stunning testimony to Senate estimates, board member Ron Finlay said the government had given up leverage in its in the drawn-out negotiations with Naval Group by “down-selecting” to the French option in 2016.

He said as negotiations with the company became bogged down in the second quarter of 2018, the board advised the government to consider dumping the French company, and look at engaging German, Japanese or Swedish firms to build the next generation submarines.

But Defence argued none of those options would deliver the “regionally superior” submarine that Australia required, Mr Finlay said.

Under questioning by Labor Senator Penny Wong, Mr Finlay said the government’s naming of DCNS which later became Naval Group – as the successful bidder without any alternatives had compromised the government’s negotiating position.

“In my experience, many decades of negotiating major contracts, if you do not have an alternative of either going to bidder ‘b’ or cancelling the project, yes you are captured in a negotiation with few options,” he said.

“And, that does increase the number of issues that can become a block to concluding the negotiations.”

Mr Finlay told the Senate’s Foreign Affairs and Defence committee that, as negotiations with Naval Group threatened to break down in 2018, the board advised the government to look at alternative vendors, or consider a full rebuild of all six Collins-class subs “to buy time” to look for an alternative bidder.

He said the board was concerned the French company would be unable to deliver promised sovereign submarine-building capability, upskill the Australian workforce, or maximise Australian content in the boats.

Mr Finlay said the United States’ government requirement that the design of the Lockheed Martin provided combat system for the submarines not be shared with Naval Group was also a "higher-order risk".

BEN PACKHAM

FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT

Ben Packham has spent almost 20 years in journalism, working at Melbourne's Herald Sun before joining The Australian as a political reporter in 2011. He rejoined the bureau in 2018 after almost four years in Papua New Guinea, and is now foreign affairs and defence correspondent.