The Collins LOTE: The Once and Future Strategic Military Capability - Part 1
Part 1 Policy imperatives for sustaining Australia’s currently most important defence capability development program The program to extend the lives of the RAN’s 6 Collins class submarines is currently intended as, but should not be, a maintenance and replacement job to allow the Service to keep training personnel until the new boats of the Attack class come along. Assuming that all goes as currently planned with the Future Submarine Program (FSP), the Collins class will still provide the backbone of Australia’s strategic military capability for at least the next two decades. Therefore, the policy focus of the LOTE (Life Of Type Extension) program should be ensuring that the boats are developed to overcome the threats that might negate their capabilities and endanger their crews in the period out to around 2040. That period seems likely to be one of the most challenging to Australia’s security for many decades. The global and regional strategic situation is becoming more unstable.