Saving Submariners Down Under

The Australian has a pretty decent article on Pacific Reach, a submarine rescue exercise last week that appears to have involved several dozen nations.

This submarine rescue exercise, codenamed Pacific Reach, off the coast of Western Australia captures the paradox of the submarine. Able to strike a fatal blow while remaining unseen, the submarine is a weapon nations covet, resulting in what analysts call a Pacific arms race to build more.

While deadly effective, it can also be deadly to those on board. The history of submarine development is punctuated with accidents that have claimed many men who died, cold and alone on the sea floor.

The whole article is an excellent read, and the article includes some excellent stories for those unfamiliar with the depth issue of the Collins or the "Remora" incident. What caught my eye though is something I've been developing some information on, specifically that the RAN is starting to talk about Collins class replacements.

The Collins-class subs face the end of their operational life from 2025 and, in August, the then Labor Opposition committed to building a new fleet to replace them as one of its first acts in government. Senior navy briefings in the past few weeks have already discussed the possible timeline of this project.

"It's very much on the horizon," says Scott. "I think the area there you would improve would be speed, perhaps more flexibility in payloads. There's a lot of research going into underwater vehicles for surveillance."

As I understand it the talks have begun. There are no details yet, but there is a focus I intend to get to once I have more information. For everyone who thinks the US Navy needs to build conventional submarines powered by fuel cells, keep your eye on the Collins replacement, because given the relationship between the US Navy and the RAN, the Collins replacement will have every major submarine system on the Virginia except the nuclear reactor. One thing we also know for sure, the Collins replacement will be a fleet submarine which means there are going to be very few excuses for the US Navy not to examine or perhaps participate in the design.

I'll have more on the Collins replacement at a later time.