Australia said on Saturday it had signed a A$2.2 billion ($1.4 billion) four-year contract with state-owned submarine builder ASC to upgrade the navy’s Collins class submarines.
The “sustainment contract” is part of a government pledge to keep the diesel-electric powered Collins-class fleet “a potent strike and deterrence capability”, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said in a statement.
The contract will be “directly ensuring job security for more than 1,100 highly skilled workers”, with the work carried out in the towns of Henderson in Western Australia and Osborne in South Australia, Conroy said.
Osborne is where ASC and Britain’s BAE Systems will jointly build Australia’s fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, the core component of the 2021 AUKUS pact between Britain, the U.S. and Australia.
Until that work begins later this decade, the shipyard is where much of the maintenance is performed on the existing Collins-class fleet.
Conroy said it was part of the centre-left government’s A$4 to A$5 billion commitment to the submarines, which are planned to operate into the 2040s.
Work is expected to be done over four years with 90% of the budget being spent in the country. Shipyards in South and Western Australia will be involved in the upgrade ensuring that skills and expertise remain alive and kicking.
The Collins class submarines acquired negative overtones when the building and delivery of the boats got highly politicised. Then there were cost overruns, production slippages and technical issues that took time and effort to get resolved.
Add to that the Royal Australian Navy, it appeared, was not very clear as to what it could expect from the six Collins class boats iat had in service.
Ultimately a major review identified the problem areas and from zero, the submarine availability rose to a point where the navy was satisfied. Now the Collins class will continue in service for more years as the navy gets ready for the complex mission of taking on nuclear powered boats.
With Reuters inputs
