Posted on 11/09/2010 8:22:59 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Australia needs 12 large subs for security
Brendan Nicholson
From: The Australian
AUSTRALIA will need 12 big, long-range submarines to help it shape its own strategic future.
The region will be increasingly dominated by China, says Paul Dibb, author of the 1987 defence white paper.
In the wake of warnings about China's growing military power at the Ausmin talks, Professor Dibb will tell a Submarine Institute conference in Perth today it is time Australians took their strategic outlook much more seriously.
"We ignore our own unique strategic geography at our peril in the decades ahead," he will say.
Having a large, more potent submarine force must be a central strategic priority for Australia and there should be bipartisan agreement politically about that, Professor Dibb will tell the conference.
The boats should be built in Australia, he will say, and they should be fitted with powerful long-range weapons such as cruise missiles.
The current white paper has called for 12 long-range subs to be built in South Australia at an estimated cost of $36 billion, with the first of the boats to be operational from 2020.
"Too much of the defence debate in this country is preoccupied with the short term. There is a blindness in Australia towards the need to do our utmost to shape our own strategic future.
"We need to return to the fundamental importance of our strategic geography and focus on the potentially threatening historical changes that are about to occur to the geopolitical landscape in our part of the world."
Professor Dibb will stress that Australia needs a larger submarine force and a potent air force and he will deride the purchase for the navy of two giant military transports.
"We do not require two 27,000-tonne amphibious assault ships that will require protection by most
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
Oh come on, everyone knows Australia doesn’t have a coast. lol. Right in the middle of Europe!
Yes, I’m kidding.
People these days need to learn some geography.
=)
C'mon Freepers! If we all chip in a buck we can get them the 12 large subs and a side of onion rings.
I mean size and quality wise.
expensive and waste of money
C’mon Freepers! If we all chip in a buck we can get them the 12 large subs and a side of onion rings.
Try the $5 footlong Vegemite and Lowcal Curried Dingo at Subway
Let ‘em build their own. Oh wait! Socialists can’t build anything new, can they?
The ADF is highly capable quality-wise but somewhat small when compared to most Asian countries. Though that isn’t supposed to be an issue given its alliance with the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Defence_Force
For a country, sorry continent of its size, 12 subs are probably inadequate.
I’m sure the U.S. could sell a few mothballed LA Class attack sub at a reasonable price.
Afterall our navy is shrinking in size and the democrats won’t provide the funding to run them.
The sale of N-submarines is banned under some international convention, though there is no restriction on leasing.
But on a practical level, cost and logistical challenges would probably stand in the way of any such deal with Australia. The current Australian Collins class subs require a crew of less than 50 while an average L.A class boat has complement of about 100. And the RAN is already facing a shortage of submarine officers.
We know in Austria they speak Austrian.
That Mises guy was an Aussie, right?
He is famous for saying things like “You can’t have a right free economy, mate, with bureaucrats meddling all in your business” when he wasn’t wrestling gators.
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