Quote:
Originally Posted by Onkel Neal
Diesel sub. Cheaper to build, much cheaper to run. Super quiet when running silent on batteries. But at some point it has to come up for air, and then it's noisy. And dead. A nuke sub can run silent for 6 months. It can outlast a diesel sub. Debate!
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Well for a start its a fairly good move for the Aussies not to select to go nuclear on many grounds.
firstly the Australians do not have the facilities to maintain upgrade over haul or even fuel these types of warships, on top of that Australia has only a single reactor in the whole country despite them being one of the largest exporters of Uranium.
Secondly it would be an issue of man power and also trained nuclear man power as well something the Australians don't have, they currently have issues with man power in their submarine service and have done for some time, each Collins class has a crew of roughly 42 people a nuclear boat would need at least double that if we go on western crewing figures so simply it wouldn't work right now.
Thirdly the nuclear option is widely rejected in the Australian region with the Kiwi's firmly anti nuclear and with them both being in a close alliance i don't think it would be wise to upset them or the electorate of Australia who have no desire to go nuclear.
The cost of building the facilities would run into the tens of billions of dollars and that's without laying down a single vessel, the other side to it would also be that a nuclear boat would be some where in the region of $1bn USD and for that the Australians would likely have only been able to build and operate four boats not the twelve they pledged.
Australia doesn't have a need really for nuclear boats yes they are isolated down there but they often like the UK operate in coalition strike groups where other nations such as the Royal Navy and United States Navy have nuclear submarines.
I am dubious about the short fin barracuda class submarine i am skeptical about this this type of submarine and i personally do not think it is a good match for the Australians, if i am honest i would have said they should have gone for a enlarged German type 216 design with AIP systems in place this could have been a better option for near nuke performance.
I also have reservations about upping the fleet from 6 to 12 boats not just on cost but also because of crewing requirements, this comes about because recently the Australian government has purchased some high end equipment which need quite a few crew, again i think they were wrong possibly in purchasing the Juan Carlos type vessels and should have taken the French Mistral design instead, unless they wish to reinforce the flight decks and operate a handful of F35B from them which could be done in the future.
Over all i have concerns but lets see what the future holds for these new boats.