" Dud " Subs !

A search of Australia's military history reveals a few things we would prefer to forget.   Back in the 1930's a political row broke out over buying new planes for our air force.  It was claimed we should be designing and building them ourselves and so the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation ( CAC ) was formed to do exactly that !

That raised the question of whether we needed fighters ?   Or  bombers ?    The planners decided to split the difference and so we got a fighter/bomber, and this new aircraft was termed the " Wirraway ".   It was a single engine aircraft with a pilot and a gunner, too small to carry a useful bomb load and too slow to be competitive with the opposing aircraft of our likely enemies.  This became painfully clear when we found ourselves at war a short time later.

What should be abundantly clear to our defence people is that it is fatal to rely on military ordinance that does not meet the challenge posed by a likely aggressor.  Our defence planners contend that our submarine fleet will be essential in any future conflict in  keeping a hostile force away from our shores and yet this is an era where we are facing an obvious deficiency.

At present we are defended by six obsolete Collins class submarines of which rarely is more than one ready for sea duty.  It seems that this ageing fleet is expected to hold the line for quite a number of years and this is at a time when there are very serious challenges taking place to the oceans not far from our north coast.

Our defence planners have decided that we need to double the number of submarines in our navy and an order has been placed for twelve, which will be built in a French shipyard and fitted out here in Australia.   What is alarming is the proposed time scale.  This will take the form of progressive deliveries and the first is scheduled to arrive in 2032 and be combat ready in 2035.

Of course, that time frame depends on everything running to schedule, and with defence matters it is not unusual for technical upgrades to delay completion for many years.  It is a big ask to expect those clunky, noisy old Collins class subs to do sea duty and hold the line until whatever it takes to get twelve spanking new submarines combat ready.

Fortunately, it is a long time since we last saw a direct threat of invasion and our defence needs are based on treaties with other nations but submarines are an essential in denying access to our near waters by hostile forces.  We may be lucky and find that no threat eventuates until those replacement subs become operational, but we would do well to remember when we went to war with those Wirraway aircraft.