Backing up Pete's Feb 22, 2019 article. On Feb 23 Australia’s Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds told Parliament she is annoyed with the slow progress of negotiations with the French. Linda is referring to the troubled Attack class program in which French government owned Naval Group is being paid many $Billions.
If the Dutch are contemplating choosing Naval Group for the Netherlands' future submarine, this may be risky. Naval Group may not be the money saver expected. Naval Group may be able to make a low contract winning bid, because this being is cross-subsidized by Australia's foolishly extravagant Attack class order.
But the Dutch will also have to contend with Naval Group’s natural focus on its major French national priority - developing France’s future SSBN. Naval Group has also yet to complete “Full Operating Capability” of France’s new SSN.
ARTICLE
Andrew Greene, Defence Correspondent, for Australia’s
government owned ABC News, Feb 24, 2021, reports (Pete is just displaying part of the submarine content):
“Government
frustrations and concerns grow over Australia's multi-billion-dollar submarine...”
Defence
Minister Linda Reynolds has expressed "frustration" and
"disappointment" with the French company building Australia's $90
billion future submarines as she prepares to confront its visiting global boss
over crucial contract negotiations.
A year
after Naval Group pledged to spend 60 per cent of the massive contract value on
local suppliers, the company is yet to enshrine the figure in a formal deal
with the Commonwealth...
Sources have said Prime Minister Scott Morrison
has become increasingly worried in recent months about Defence's ability to
deliver the massive projects and has relayed his concerns directly to the Department's
National Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise team.
Ahead of her
meeting with Naval Group, Senator Reynolds has told Parliament she is annoyed
with the slow progress of the negotiations with the French.
On [Feb 24, 2021], Naval Group's global chief executive,
Pierre Eric Pommellet, is expected to meet with Senator Reynolds in Canberra
after flying into Adelaide where he completed a mandatory two-week quarantine
stint.
"I am frustrated and I'm very disappointed
that Naval Group have yet been able to finalise this contract with Defence, but
it will not be done at the expense of Australian jobs, and Australian
industry," Senator Reynolds said on Tuesday.
"This capability is far too important for our nation to do
that."
The ABC understands the Commonwealth is insisting
on annual audits of Australian Industry Content (AIC) in the project to
construct 12 Attack Class submarines, but the French are so far resisting....”
3 comments:
More on Australia's anger with Naval Group at:
"Visiting French submarine boss confronted over Australian industry content in $90 billion defence project"
at Aus Gov's ABC News, Feb 25, 2021 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-25/company-building-australias-submarines-local-content-rules/13189608
As far as local manufacturing capacity goes, I will fault Australia for not building up local industry adequately using the Oberon O&M experience and Collins manufacture... It is just like India missing the manufacturing boat for 10-15 years after the HDW Type-209 ToT/knowhow fiasco of 1986-87..Only with the Arihant and Scorpene are we slowly building a base now...
All this 'dog and pony' show of 'venting the spleen' at the NG/DCNS Chief is all a bit too late and blatantly insincere considering both the ALP and LNP (with abbott and Turnbull being probably the most egregious) willingly put Australia over the barrel that DCNS held out....all that bungling is impossible to undo now....
It might be worth the costly lesson if Osborne can finally be afforded the chance to build up a bigger manufacturing ecosystem for subs, UUVs etc given the new era of 're-onshoring' of critical/strategic manufacturing....at a possible A$ 200 billion plus...the lessons won't come cheap though....India is only starting to show signs of maturing capabilities to build subs after a 25 year intense and steady concentration....
Both the nuclear infra I mentioned elsewhere and this naval engineering ability expansion will come only if there is intense focus for the next 25 years...American 'mood swings' imply 'self-reliance' in key segments is now a strategic necessity.
Hi GhalibKabir
@Feb 26, 2021, 9:13:00 PM
Australia has a small industrial base compared to India's. We have none of India's low price labour advantage.
Because Australians trained with/in UK RN Oberon SSK ops the direct purchase/ops of RAN Oberons from UK (1970-2000) was an efficiet process - success story.
"Collins"? we should have bought/built German boats instead - especially because of their efficient MAN or MTU diesels. The Hedemora diesels bought from Sweden have been the main downplayed (even covered up by Aus Gov) weakness of the Collins. Hedemora need all-too-frequent total overhauls actually involving "sun-roof" cutting many square meters of pressure hull sections. Weakening Collins hulls so they can only dive shallower than specs suggest.
Yes the SEA 1000 future sub purchase was always defective because what Australia actually needed/needs is SSNs, never an political option - because a whole land based reactor addition is always ringed into proposals. We would better rely on French in France land based reactors providing the LEU refueling every 12 years.
The Chinese will make short work of our slow, noisy diesel, SSKs. Also NG has yet to prove it can include fully mature 2nd/3rd generation AIP or LIBs that would at least give our SSKs a quiet chance.
Australia's operating environment: long distance/need for fast movement and weapons, largely relegates UUVs to long distance sensor collectors.
Cheers
Pete
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