Australia's Requirement for Submarines provides a high-level summary of the considerations behind the decision about the replacement of the Collins Class. It provides a brief qualitative discussion on the reasons behind the replacement submarine. The replacement of the Collins class submarine is one of the largest and most important defence projects Australia will undertake.
Over many years, DST has provided extensive science and technology support for the Collins class and has aided the development of concepts for the Future Submarine to replace the Collins class. The paper was written to provide a brief discussion on the issues that need to be examined when considering the acquisition of a new submarine for Australia.
The study provides an overview of submarine technology and why it is critical for safeguarding Australia’s maritime borders and the nation’s defence capability.
It was authored by DST maritime experts Janis Cocking, Christopher Norwood and Chris Davis.
AUSTRALIA’S MARITIME STRATEGY
A fundamental question extant at the outset is, why acquire new submarines at all?
To answer this requires an examination of Australia’s strategic interests and how best to pursue them. One key determinant here is geographical in nature.
Because Australia is an island continent south of South-East Asia and somewhat remote to the rest of the world, its ability to trade with other nations – and hence its prosperity – depends on shipping being able to freely transit seaways in the region. The majority of Australia’s trade is conducted with East Asian countries over seaways traversing the South-East Asian archipelago.
Crucially for Australian maritime strategy, there are many straits and other maritime geographical features that form choke points through which all shipping is channelled. In the south of the archipelago, there are twelve navigable straits, while in the mid-north there are just five, and further north there are fewer still.
These choke points could be used to great disruptive effect if controlled by an unfriendly power. Equally, they provide conditions that Australia can exploit to readily thwart any naval attacks approaching from north of the choke points. The capability to mount a sustained presence in these areas is thus of high strategic importance to Australia.
Click here for the full document (24 PDF pages) on the DST website.
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