Woolner & Jones

For the third time Australia has severed relationships with a partner selected to assist the RAN acquire submarines. The decision to acquire nuclear powered submarines using the newly created AUKUS arrangements and prematurely end the Attack class program adds to the list of barely considered ‘politicians picks’ in Australian defence equipment selection, along with classics such as the F-111 and F-35. Yet although the agreement of the United States to release its nuclear propulsion technology is historically significant, subsequent discussion largely has been misguided. The submarines will be the last technology that Australia will see delivered and it is likely that the digital technologies of cyber warfare, quantum computing and artificial intelligence will have transformed the nature of warfare before they have arrived, suggesting that the acquisition of the submarines is by no means certain, at least in the terms that have so far been revealed. Despite an undertaking to constru...

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....