Sweden too risky to build $20 billion future submarine — officials

DESPITE building submarines for a century, Sweden has been knocked out of the race to build Australia’s future submarine.

Defence Senate Committee

A LENGTHY brawl over intellectual property rights and the perceived risk of an industry being rebuilt knocked Sweden out of the race to build the navy’s future submarine.

The government last week announced that Japan, Germany and France would fight it out for the $20 billion plus job to build between eight and 10 large conventional submarines to replace six Collins Class boats.

Swedish firm Saab purchased the country’s submarine builder Kockums — the designer and builder of the Collins — back from German firm TKMS last year and has been working hard to get into the Australian competition.

The firm has been building submarines for a century and has hundreds of design engineers working on Sweden’s new A-26 boat that will soon enter production.

It has also rebuilt four submarines for Singapore during the past decade.

Senior defence officials told the Senate that the decision to exclude Saab was taken by a high powered committee in December 2014 following a visit to the country and France and Germany by an official delegation.

The government decided to exclude the company in January this year because it was not currently building submarines unlike Germany, Japan and France.

Submarine guru with Defence David Gould said an open tender for the submarine wouldn’t work because there was no submarine in the world that suited Australia’s needs.

“We know from work we have done that there are no such submarines in the world that meet Australia’s requirements,” Mr Gould said.

He said the Swedish option was too risky for Australia because Sweden was in the process of rebuilding its submarine industry.

“I do not want to see Australia import the risk,” he said.

The competitive evaluation process will produce a submarine concept based on current models and include proposals for construction overseas or in Australia.

Head of the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) Warren King, who yesterday announced his retirement from the post, said Saab was highly regarded by Australia but Kockums was not up the task of building the navy’s future submarine.

He also revealed that a committee made up of himself, Mr Gould, Navy chief Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, Navy submarine boss Rear Admiral Greg Sammut, senior official Peter Baxter and Vice Chief of Defence Vice-Admiral Ray Griggs had ruled out Sweden last December.

Mr King also revealed that lengthy disputes between Kockums and the Swedish Government over intellectual property rights was a crucial factor.

“It was very much a frustration for us,” he said.

Originally published as Sweden too risky to build $20 billion future submarine — officials