OUR NEW SUBS
Early next year the competitive evaluation process (CEP) for Australia’s new submarine will come to an end and the company selected as best for our purposes will go on to the next stage.
This is the design stage where all elements that make up the submarine and its equipment will be laid out. There will be input from Australian defence officials about our specific needs. When the design is complete, then we will move on to the construction phase.
The three chosen ones asked to take part in the CEP are the Japanese with the Soryu boat; the French with the short-fin" Barracuda and the Germans submission, which is the Type-216 submarine.
What criteria are under examination by the government to select the firm to build our next generation …show more content…
What of the three contenders for the contract? The Japanese government is one contender and has put up the Soryu as the submarine for the RAN. Is the Soryu as good as the Collins class let alone a new generation submarine? It would take a mountain of modifications to make this boat suitable for RAN purposes.
Soryu’s range is 6000 kilometres at 6.5 knots—Collins is 9000 kilometres at 10 knots. The Japanese boat carries one fewer diesel generator than Collins, which means longer snorting times and that means more vulnerability. Collins has US based combat systems fully integrated and Soryu does not. The torpedo tubes are not capable of taking the American Mk 48 torpedo, which is preferred by the RAN. The operational life of current Soryu-class submarines is a mere 16 years. Collins is 28 years. Not much bang for your buck with a 16-year lifespan.
It seems obvious the Japanese boat needs a total redesign to operate to the standards required by our Navy. This is possible, but we would be dealing with Japanese industry that has no record of building submarines outside of their own backyard.
BARRACUDA VERSUS TYPE …show more content…
Germany’s track record is 100 submarines exported since WW2. France has exported 20. The Germans and the French are easier with the idea of total transfer of intellectual property than the Japanese. It is a must that the submarines are built in Australia and that they can be maintained here. To build in another country, and have to send our subs there for maintenance, is to put ourselves at the mercy of that country’s industrial base and its continuing goodwill--aside from the other strong strategic reasons to build locally.
The French Barracuda is bigger and heavier than its competitors weighing it at 4.700 tonnes against the Japanese 4,200 and the German 3,950. It is 99 metres in length and 8.8 metres in the beam with a top speed of more than 20 knots and a crew of 60. It has a range of 18,000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The German boat has a range of 10,400 nautical miles at 12 knots. It is 90 metres by 8.1 metres and carries a crew of 33 officers and men. This last statistic may be of interest given the RAN’s difficulties at times in finding enough crew to man the Collins
Early next year the competitive evaluation process (CEP) for Australia’s new submarine will come to an end and the company selected as best for our purposes will go on to the next stage.
This is the design stage where all elements that make up the submarine and its equipment will be laid out. There will be input from Australian defence officials about our specific needs. When the design is complete, then we will move on to the construction phase.
The three chosen ones asked to take part in the CEP are the Japanese with the Soryu boat; the French with the short-fin" Barracuda and the Germans submission, which is the Type-216 submarine.
What criteria are under examination by the government to select the firm to build our next generation …show more content…
What of the three contenders for the contract? The Japanese government is one contender and has put up the Soryu as the submarine for the RAN. Is the Soryu as good as the Collins class let alone a new generation submarine? It would take a mountain of modifications to make this boat suitable for RAN purposes.
Soryu’s range is 6000 kilometres at 6.5 knots—Collins is 9000 kilometres at 10 knots. The Japanese boat carries one fewer diesel generator than Collins, which means longer snorting times and that means more vulnerability. Collins has US based combat systems fully integrated and Soryu does not. The torpedo tubes are not capable of taking the American Mk 48 torpedo, which is preferred by the RAN. The operational life of current Soryu-class submarines is a mere 16 years. Collins is 28 years. Not much bang for your buck with a 16-year lifespan.
It seems obvious the Japanese boat needs a total redesign to operate to the standards required by our Navy. This is possible, but we would be dealing with Japanese industry that has no record of building submarines outside of their own backyard.
BARRACUDA VERSUS TYPE …show more content…
Germany’s track record is 100 submarines exported since WW2. France has exported 20. The Germans and the French are easier with the idea of total transfer of intellectual property than the Japanese. It is a must that the submarines are built in Australia and that they can be maintained here. To build in another country, and have to send our subs there for maintenance, is to put ourselves at the mercy of that country’s industrial base and its continuing goodwill--aside from the other strong strategic reasons to build locally.
The French Barracuda is bigger and heavier than its competitors weighing it at 4.700 tonnes against the Japanese 4,200 and the German 3,950. It is 99 metres in length and 8.8 metres in the beam with a top speed of more than 20 knots and a crew of 60. It has a range of 18,000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The German boat has a range of 10,400 nautical miles at 12 knots. It is 90 metres by 8.1 metres and carries a crew of 33 officers and men. This last statistic may be of interest given the RAN’s difficulties at times in finding enough crew to man the Collins