Australia and France yesterday signed an agreement to build the world’s largest diesel-electric submarines in the Australian industrial town of Adelaide.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian signed the agreement in Adelaide, where they officially opened the Australian headquarters of DCNS, a company majority-owned by the French state that is to design the Shortfin Barracuda subs.
Turnbull described the A$56 billion (US$41 billion) contract to build 12 subs as the largest capital project in Australia’s history. The contract is also DCNS’ largest outside France.
A workforce of 2,800 people is to begin building the first sub in an Adelaide shipyard in 2022.
“Security is uncertain around the world, and that is why we are re-equipping our navy and our defense forces,” Turnbull told reporters.
France beat German and Japanese rivals to secure the Australian contract in April.
France offered Australia a diesel-electric version of the Barracuda-class nuclear submarine under construction for the French navy. Japan proposed a longer version of its Soryu-class diesel-powered propulsion system with advanced stealth capabilities.
Germany, which had publicly offered to build the entire fleet in Adelaide for A$20 billion — less than half the navy’s expected cost — offered a larger variation of its Type 214 submarine made to Australian specifications called a Type 216.
The French bid offered the same pump jet propulsion that gave its nuclear submarines their advanced stealth capacity. Other diesel-electric submarines are too small to be fitted with the same stern-heavy technology.
Australia’s Shortfin Barracuda Block1A is to be 97m long and weigh 4,500 tonnes — 2.5m shorter and 200 tonnes lighter than its French nuclear cousin.
Australia already has one of the world’s largest conventional submarines, the Australia-built Collins class, and the navy insisted that its replacement at least match the Collins’ range of 22,000km.
At 3,100 tonnes and 77m long, the Collins would be dwarfed by the Shortfin Barracuda.
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