Designers of conventional subs, such as the Swedes and Germans, have experience with shorter ranges: designing a sub for the Baltic Sea is like designing a sub to do laps around the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Minister Johnston stressed that our future fleet would have to be regionally dominant, superior and also affordable. He acknowledged that these were difficult goals. Whether they are mutually exclusive depends, I suppose, on the government’s definition of “affordable”.ĪSPI estimates 12 future submarines will likely cost around $36 billion the chair of the German naval vessel and submarine manufacturer ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), a major sponsor of the conference, gave a figure of $20 billion. The TKMS estimate is a “sailaway” price, however – a dollars-per-tonne base amount that doesn’t include design or defence project-management costs. Neither estimate includes the cost of supporting the subs throughout their lifespan, which will double or triple the price. Having said that, the figure of 12 submarines was plucked from the 2009 Defence White Paper and reiterated in the 2013 White Paper. It’s unclear if anyone in the navy or the current government wants 12 subs, and currently there aren’t crews for them.
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