NEWS
Submarines
US$25bn more’ Australia’s Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, has defended plans to build the next generation of submarines in Australia. As Naval Spyglass reported recently, the Defence Department has received a report by Rear Admiral Oscar Hughes on how to avoid the mistakes with the Collins class. Te admiral headed the project from 1985 to 1993 and his report also advises the Defence Department how to secure political support, control the media and handle the ‘very dirty’ fight it says will inevitably break out. Admiral Hughes warns the programme depends
upon urgent investment in critical technologies which the country lacks. Tese include batteries, diesel engines and air-independent propulsion all of which require further research, development and engineering investment. Te Defence Department has yet to decide how
to proceed with the new boats but has established an Australian Submarine Programme office in Adelaide. Te options are to produce a new design or to adapt an existing one. A new design will clearly be more expensive than
an existing one, and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, in a study last year, said buying a European design would cost A$9 billion (US$8.4billion) while designing and producing a submarine would cost A$36 billion (US$33.6 billion).
Submarines Aussie subs ‘will cost First cut for
Brazil SSKs DCNS in France has launched the production phase of the Brazilian submarine programme, the Group’s largest ever contract for an international customer. Some 100 people were in attendance at DCNS’s
Cherbourg facility for the official ‘first-cut’ ceremony for the first of Brazil’s new conventional submarines. The forward half of this first boat will be built at Cherbourg. Te start of production comes nine months aſter
contract signing and will be followed by the arrival of around 130 Brazilian engineers and technicians who will participate in the technology transfer that forms a key part of the project and the construction submarines in Brazil. Te contract calls for the design and construction
of four conventional submarines under a technol- ogy transfer agreement, technical assistance with the design and construction of the non-nuclear portions of the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine and the design and construction of a shipyard and a submarine base for the Brazilian Navy. Te first boat of this new class is scheduled to
enter service in 2017. All four of the conventional submarines will use diesel-electric propulsion and will be manned by a crew of 30-45 submariners. Tey will have a length overall of 75m and surface displace- ment of less than 2000tonnes.
Submarines Chile weighs wave
damage for subs Naval Spyglass has reported that eye witnesses have confirmed that the earthquake and tsunami which hit Chile in February has inflicted more severe damage than originally reported on the country’s naval forces. Te scale of damage may now be more than US$1
billion and a US Navy team is assisting the Chilean Navy in assessing the damage at the Talcahuano naval base and the neighbouring Asmar shipyard. It appears the submarine forces of both Chile and
Ecuador were severely effected by the tsunami. Te submarines ARC Simpson and ARC Shyri were
both in dry-dock undergoing refits at the time of the quake. Both boats are reported to have been badly damaged with fears they may be constructive total losses. When the earthquake occurred the submarines
Costs are expected to rise significantly as the programme for the replacement of the Collins class submarine progresses.
8
ARC Carrera andTomson were at Talcahuano and immediately put to sea but they were run aground by the tsunami.
Warship Technology July/August 2010
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