Defence Minister Richard Marles has not ruled out buying ready-made nuclear submarines to plug the gap in Australia’s defence capabilities, as he sought to reassure Australian-based industries that Australians would still have a role building the future fleet.
Questioned after a defence round table in Adelaide about off-the-shelf submarines, Marles said Australia was still working out how to deal with any capability gap. Former defence minister Peter Dutton recently revealed he planned to buy two US-made submarines.
“There is a process that we’re obviously going through in terms of working out exactly which option we pursue, trying to work out how soon we can get that option, and understanding what capability gap might arise and how we might deal with that,” he said.
Defence Minister Richard Marles has assured local defence manufacturers of “continuity” under Labor.Credit:James Brickwood
“But whichever way you cut it, the building industry in this state, around submarine capability, is going to be fundamentally important to getting that capability and getting it quickly.”
Nuclear submarines secured under the AUKUS deal were vital for the country’s clout in diplomacy and trade, Marles said, while insisting that Labor would preserve local jobs following the scrapping of the French submarine deal in 2021.
Marles said the South Australian defence industry was fundamental to boosting Australia’s military muscle while the government searches for stop=gap solutions until the nuclear-propelled submarines pledged under the US and UK agreement were operation late next decade.
The defence industry is “totally central” to how Australia is “taken seriously in the world”, Marles said on Thursday following a meeting of 21 manufacturers, including Austal, Boeing and BAE Systems.
“Submarines really matter and having the capability in respect of submarines going forward really matters, and to do that we are going to have to go down the path of nuclear propulsion, and AUKUS is the mechanism which is going to deliver that for the country.”
One of Australia’s conventionally powered Collins class submarines.Credit:Defence Department
But Dr Marcus Hellyer, an expert in defence capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that instead of building the submarines in Australia, local industries should instead focus on supplying components to “a broader and larger production line”, most likely in the US.
“One of the things we need to acknowledge is that building them here doesn’t provide sovereignty because we’re still dependent on overseas partner for [various] systems,” he said, adding assembling them overseas and maintaining them locally would be much cheaper.
Professor John Blaxland of the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre said that question would be key to the debate about the industry’s trajectory.
“Are we aiming for something that is the perfect solution, that is $100 billion overpriced and 10 years too late, or do we compromise and contribute something that would accelerate the production rate?” Blaxland said.
But Australia Industry Defence Network chief executive Brent Clark said there was “no logical reason” why local industries, including small and medium enterprises, could not produce the submarines quickly on home turf.
“Sure we’re talking about the production of a nuclear submarine, but we’re not saying Australian industry is signing up to produce the nuclear reactor or the compartment it lives in. However, the rest of the submarine is simply a submarine.”
Australia will spend $270 billion over the next decade on weapons and equipment as it faces the challenge of rapidly enlarging its military strength to counter China’s growing dominance in the South Pacific.
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