Germans plan for Collins sub replacement

Let us see if the German's can do well a second time. The first time when they bid for the Oberon replacement (which ended up being today's Collins-class submarines), Germany submitted their own assumptions about submarine concept of operations and not how Australia operates submarines.

The bid selection committee properly removed points for this.

All water under the bridge.

“This is a custom submarine for Australia. No one else will have it. A lot of it is proven equipment and processes but it is a new submarine. That is a different commitment and level of work than it is selling one of our family and customising it for the customer,’’ he said.

Mr Rottsieper said Germany had agreed to make available the highest level of technology used by its own navy and would also audit the contract and process for Australia should TKMS be successful.

However, Dr Atzpodien said the company would need to have control of the shipyard where the subs are built to be able to deliver a fixed-price contract and to ensure the performance of the finished product.

“We have full confidence in our ability to deliver a good product finally as long as we have control of the industrial structures, which does not mean we do it on our own entirely. We will work with partners,’’ he said.

TKMS said it had identified about 400 local companies that could be involved in work for the subs, including deep-sea pipe maker Civmec in Henderson, Western Australia, which could build the pressure hulls.

Andrew White travelled to Germany as a guest of the German Government and the Goethe Institute.

Analysis? The Japanese option is still high-risk.

Even more so if they offer Lithium-Ion batteries as the sole submerged power source. As one reader pointed out, to date, there is no combat submarine in the water with this configuration.


.