View ABC's worst article on the Collins submarine replacement thus far

Read through this poor example of journalism.

Many of the points made are the reporter not following journalism-101 and getting a variety of sources.

Topic: Soryu design for a Collins submarine replacement.

The article claims the X-rudder configuration is Japanese-secret and unique? No, the Collins subs have an X-rudder configuration.

And...

...the US experimented with x-rudder on the USS Albacore in the 50's. The design was abandoned.



European countries had a different opinion on its usefulness.

It isn't unique.

The article talks about AIP. Again, not Japanese. This is Euro-tech. Not unique.

Anechoic tiles?

Try Nazi Germany. And it is possible that the Australians were the first to figure out how to attach anechoic tiles so as to fall off submarines at a lower rate....

...back in the 1990's.

The Soryu's are fine boats. They meet Japanese requirements. I wouldn't even mind it if the U.S. Navy had 50 of these in stock trim. Because my idea of a USN requirement (regional conventional subs from overseas bases) isn't an Australian requirement.

It has been spelled out already that the Australian requirement is the ability to leave a sub base in Western Australia, go up to the South China Sea, patrol, and as two white paper's have pointed out, launch large, long-range, stand-off, cruise missiles.

Big.

Lots of diesel fuel.

That requirement is basically stupid. But there you go. The dumb requirement that is SEA1000 can be best done by a U.S. Virginia-class nuke boat.

Moving right a long.

The Soryu has half the range of a Collins class. What are they going to give up in space in a Australian-Soryu to get more range? Crew accommodations in a stock Soryu are also insufficient according to Australia.

Industry? It will be impressive to watch the efficient Japanese work with a seriously deskilled entrenched defence bureaucracy without their brains exploding.

So there you are. This reporting is what you can expect from a government-funded outfit.

Half-assed with no accountability.

Commercial competition yields a will to be at the top of one's game. Or, find another line of work.

Sad that people get paid for this nonsense reporting. We pay for it to a tune of over $1B per year.


.