In response to Anonymous's from June 20, 2022and /Kjell
However much the procedural advantages of an SSK tender, the SSK tender option had its day in 2016 and is exhausted now.
The new Albanese government would be very unpopular with Australian taxpayers if it ran yet another conventional submarine (SSK) tender, which, on usual design-building-testing timelines would produce the first operational SSK in 2040.
Main reasons being:
- Australia had its SSK tender in 2016
- which chose France's Naval Group (was DCNS) an efficient, credible SSK builder
- the Morrison Government, with Albanese Labor's bipartisan agreement, ripped up the contract with the 2016 tender winner Naval Group.
- This is because it was judged an SSK would be obsolete against high tech naval superpower China by the mid 2030s.
- the Albanese Government is paying over A$3 Billion to Naval Group and other contractors in recognition an SSK Tender Winner is not what Australia wants now.
- All of this makes the idea of running yet another SSK tender inexplicable on financial, greater Chinese capability/threat, timing and definite unpopularity with Australian taxpayer reasons.
- Also all new submarines are to at least minimal degree tailor-made for customers.
- For Australia thetailor-making would be to a MAXIMAL degree due to Australia's unique long range-long endurance-at high speed-with large crew-with 20+ heavyweight shots requirements.
- An SSN, much larger than any SSK, meets those requirements.
- All the contractual milestone negotiations and design changes, from the Euro-sub, South Korean or Japanese norm, would mean an "INTERIM" submarine would probably only be operation in 2040 - which ISN'T "INTERIM"
and
- Australia has wanted a "regionally superior submarine" since 2009.
- China has raised the bar on what is regionally superior. For manned submarines only an Australian SSN by around 2040 would be regionally superior against the all-important Chinese SSN threat in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
I think only an Orca unmanned submarine can be developed in time to be INTERIM.