It is interesting how this shallow news piece is sold.
Australia will bring Soryu submarines to a military exercise; in order to do a sales pitch.
The article states that the Germans and French don't have an existing submarine to show off. And thus, this is put into the win column for those that want the Soryu to replace Collins submarine.
However, the Japanese don't have an operationally representative submarine for Australia to show off either.
New Soryu subs won't be like what is coming to Australia for this exercise.
New Soryu subs (including what Australia is looking at) will have Lithium-Ion batteries. This has never been done before for operational submarines. No other Navy has tested this out in operationally representative submarine designs. It is not a trivial matter.
Australianization of the Soryu will include; 6-8 meter length add-on to address short range issues. If the (lighter) Lithium-Ion batteries work as promised, this might get them through any buoyancy budget issues. You can read about what happens when the buoyancy budget gets off the rails here. That is when a pre-requirement wish-list, wants everything you can stuff into the boat.
Many other systems that will be different for Australia; the crew quarters, combat system and weapons to name a few.
This exercise that is reported by the ABC is similar to sending the Spanish frigate that was the father of our troubled Air Warfare Destroyer design, which had significant changes (Australianization) and is now billions over budget. In fact, the Air Wafare Destroyer project is probably less risk than the Australianization of the Soryu.
As a side note, I don't know where they get the advanced Soryu sub claim from. It is an excellent submarine for patrol in Japanese waters...for their requirements.
Components in it (like propulsion) are license-built, from other countries.
Interesting, a stock, off the show-room floor, German 212 submarine, has more range than a Soryu. Germany has already stated they can accommodate a U.S. combat system (a requirement).
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