“Enhanced sustainment.” Collins Class subs to fight on – the true Budget hit

Last week’s Federal budget buried (or sunk) another $6 billion that would have been spent on extending the life of the Collins Class submarines. But as Rex Patrick explains, we will get less.

On budget night, the price of extending Collins’ life rose from $5 billion to $11 billion. Ka-ching! Remember, life extension is a program that was necessary because the Department of Defense did not know how to purchase replacement parts in a timely and cost-effective manner.

And so this week, Defense Secretary Richard Marles complained about the Coalition (unfairly, because Labor’s fingerprints were all over the Navy’s submarine saga) advising the taxpayer that life expectancy would be shortened for the same $11 billion. Although the details in the announcement are brief, MWM It understands that the life of the submarines will be extended by diesel upgrades on all six submarines being carried out only if absolutely necessary.

a direct angry as hell scenario, Marles called this change “increased sustainability.”

Spin is the only thing that avoids talking about the wholesale mismanagement of national security by both Labor and the Coalition and Defence.

Submarine supply return

When the future submarine program was first announced by Kevin Rudd in 2009, construction of the first of 12 new submarines was to begin in 2016 and become operational in 2025; This coincided with the first of the Collins Class submarines being retired in 2026.

Smooth, right? The aging Collins Class will be withdrawn as new submarines come online.

Just two years into the future submarine program under the Labor Government, things have ‘got out of control’.

In October 2011 Senate Estimates Liberal Senator David Johnston brought out the fact that Defense was undertaking a Submarine Life Extension Program study to extend the life of one of the Collins Class submarines because the first future submarine would be late.

The plan was to extend the life of one or two Collins submarines.

Ka-ching! $1 billion of taxpayers’ money was lost because the defense could not recover.

Fast forward to 2016 (the year when construction was supposed to begin on the first new submarine), the Turnbull Liberal Government announced that Australia would spend $50 billion on 12 new Attack Class submarines.

As only Defense has done, they chose a sub-design based on the French nuclear submarine and asked supplier Naval Group to convert the design into a diesel-electric submarine. This would be like asking Tesla to remove the batteries from its latest electric vehicle and replace it with a gasoline engine.

But Defense likes to do things the hard way: with your money.

Dumb Ways to Buy: Defense ‘mess-ups’ revealed – former submariner and senator Rex Patrick

Attack Class subscribers

During the development of the Attack Class submarine, Defense realized that delivery would not come before the early 2030s and therefore worked on the cost to extend the lifespan of more Collins-class submarines. Ka-ching! The cost of covering up Defense’s incompetence rose to $4 billion.

The life extension program would include a number of upgrades; new main engines (to turn the propellers), new diesel engines (to charge the submarine’s batteries), new power distribution plants and new optical masts (modern periscopes).

As if that extra $4 billion in life extension costs wasn’t bad enough for taxpayers, the price of Attack Class subscribers increased from $50 billion to $90 billion. Ka-ching!

In 2021, Scott Morrison canceled the French program and announced that the Government would conduct a study with the US and UK on purchasing nuclear-powered submarines.

$3.4 billion of taxpayers’ money was spent not to buy French submarines, including $830 million in compensation paid to Naval Group. Ka-ching!

To be fair, Scott Morrison hasn’t committed to buying anything for Australia, he’s just explored the possibility. However, after the Ministry of Defense submitted a study towards AUKUS in early 2023, new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese committed to joining AUKUS. At a cost of 368 billion dollars. Ka-ching.

Never Never’s subscribers

As AUKUS progressed and the arrival date of the first US Virginia Class submarine appeared to be 2035, the program to extend the life of the Collins also progressed. But there was a problem.

Richard Marles on June 5, 2024 announced He said the price for Collins’ life extension had risen to $5 billion… Ka-ching… but that the optronic mast upgrade (some equipment for it had already been purchased) would no longer proceed. More money for less talent!

As time progressed it became clear (except to those in Government) that AUKUS was a sub-agreement from which you ultimately received no subscription. The US can’t produce enough submarines for Australia and the UK can’t seem to do anything right with submarines.

Rudd gives his AUKUS speech in Washington, but is the USA marching?

Although 17 years have passed since the announcement in 2009 that the Navy would purchase new submarines, there is still no lower delivery date in sight. But we send billions of dollars to the USA and the UK every year to develop shipbuilding industrial bases.

More money for less

More money for less talent is a common theme on Defense. When the future Hunter Class frigate program was announced by the Coalition, the nine frigates would cost taxpayers $30 billion. However, as the program progressed, the cost increased to $45 billion. Ka-ching!

Then in 2024 the Labor Government scaled back the program to just six frigates for the same $45 billion. Ka-ching.

But don’t worry; All that is at stake is your hard-earned money and only your national security.

What if there was AUKUS NDIS? Increasing cost of hard-to-find subscribers remaining in budget