SUBMARINE CORPORATION DUE FOR A NAME CHANGE.

Facebook blog of two years ago:

Osborne, near Adelaide, in South Australia has been the home of the Australian Submarine Corporation or ASC (Government owned) since it was established in 1987. It is noted for the design and construction of our six Collins class submarines, having diesel-electric propulsion, and ca 4500 tonne weight. Ever since ASC has been responsible for repairs, maintenance and design upgrades of the submarine fleet.

Currently in progress is the construction of three Hobart class Air Warfare Destroyers of ca 6259 tonnes. According to Turnbull's recent Defence White Paper , further down the pipeline of jobs are new Frigates to be built, costing $35 billion, supplying 2000 jobs, starting in 2020 and twelve Offshore Patrol Vessels, costing $3 billion, requiring 400 jobs. So the naval ship building skills of the ASC are to be continually maintained into the distant future.

However, the wisdom of the idea of building TWELVE more submarines at ASC as a replacement for the six existing Collins subs, at an estimated cost of $50 billion, is not obvious. The Navy can not justify committing to such a huge expenditure, considering that its track record in building submarines is not good (we have one or two operational at any one time), and the fact the Federal Government just doesn't have that sort of money to spare in its forward budgets.

We are not planning on starting a war. We don't want more submarines.....the present Collins lot are a disaster. There are many major items that we actually do WANT (e.g, hospitals, schools, roads, power stations, hydro-dams etc) that also cost billions of dollars to construct, and there is only so much money to divvy up. The Navy must pull its head in and be a responsible citizen, and not get carried away with its enthusiasm for promoting the "Free World"

The defence of Australia is quite adequately done by surface vessels (Destroyers and Frigates etc), by a strong air force and drones, and the army, without wasting money on trying to build submarines we don't want. Therefore I suggest the ASC should change its name to the Australian Shipbuilding Corporation, or ASC as before, in recognition of its broader engineering skills base.....submarines being out of sight and out of mind.
Regards from Allano.