Been reading about this topic via numerous reports in the Australian for a couple of years now ...
Juliar wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:21 am
Will the Govt bite the bullet and walk away from the primitive diesel subs ?
Don't know, they seem committed .. but I hope so.
Not because it's diesel-electric rather than nuke-electric, but because it's French.
The French made ugly cars for decades just to be different ... the French have to be different for the sake of being different itself.
The Chinese hacked the French manufacturers and stole the plans to the subs they're building for India before they even started building them. We've been guaranteed the specs on our proposed subs is/are safe, but it's standard practice in the corporate world to conceal/hide instances of industrial espionage to the public by those targeted. The strategic spooks suggest French cyber-security is not up to scratch.
Personally I never understood why our govt went for the French option when the Japs make a far better sub, which is proven and compatible with our existing military technologies. I don't know who got the kick-back but something dodgey went on in the decision making process here.
I can understand the choice not to go for nuke subs, despite the superior capabilities.
#1 being we don't have anyone trained to maintain the reactors, which mean importing the expertise.
In 2003 as a Greens party member I met a bloke (also Greens member) formerly from our navy who was being, or had been trained to work on reactors in US Navy subs (suggesting our govt or navy had plans to go nuke) but got direct exposure to a reactor and got a terminal cancer (leukemia or lymphoma - forget which) and for all I know is probably dead now.
I remember when our army was acquiring the Javelin shoulder fired anti-tank missiles from the US, the DU tips were replaced with Tungsten tips. And I was sort of glad, because if we ever get invaded and have to use them on our own ground, at least we're not contaminating our home with a toxin that last 3.5 billion years.
The US has had allied countries demanding clean up and compo when DU bullets were mistakenly used in practice runs/games. Its a big liability.
And back to subs, just before the USSR fell over the Russians had a sub graveyard full of nuke subs with leaking reactors they didn't know how to deal with. I wouldn't eat anything I knew came out of Northern hemisphere oceans.
So yes, nuke subs have superior capabilities, but we're not set up to maintain them properly.
And now with this 'Drone Swarm' technology passing from sci-fi to reality there may not be a genuine reason to have manned subs at all.
If it was my choice, I'd go for the Japanese Sōryū option.
The Japs make quality gear these days ... better than the Germans.
If Donald Trump is so close to the Ruskis, why couldn't he get Vladimir Putin to put novichok in Xi Jjinping's lipstick?
