Australia badly needs a modern submarine fleet to replace its ageing Collins-class submarines in order to ensure the security of its sea lines of communication in an increasingly volatile Indo-Pacific region. Its future submarines will be required to operate further from home, including in the South China Sea. Accordingly, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced early in August 2015 that his government would bring forward defence projects worth billions of dollars, including the Attack submarine (known at the time as the Future Submarine) project.
In his estimation, doing so would safeguard thousands of Australian shipbuilding jobs and keep a large part of the estimated $40 billion that the proposed twelve new submarines would cost, in the country. His announcement reinvigorated debate on whether the Future Submarines ought to be bought off the shelf from a foreign manufacturer, designed specifically for Australia’s requirements and built in conjunction with a foreign manufacturer or completely designed and built in Australia.....MORE
