Defence Minister Richard Marles has ‘open mind’ to huge change

Defence Minister Richard Marles has fired a warning shot to Australia’s top brass, declaring he has an “open mind” to one change.

Defence Minister Richard Marles hasn’t ruled out ordering additional submarines before the country’s new fleet is completed some 20 years from now.

Mr Marles has said one of his top priorities is plugging the gap between the retirement of Australia’s ageing Collins Class fleet and the arrival of the nuclear-powered submarines.

Mr Marles on Monday said he had an “open mind” on the option of procuring an additional fleet of conventional submarines — a “Son of Collins” — to use in the interim.

“I don’t want to set the hares running on any of that,” he told the ABC.

“What I would say is my mind is really open, because it needs to be in order to deal with what is the capability gap that has arisen. And we’ll be very focused on trying to deal with that.”

Mr Marles, who is acting prime minister this week while Anthony Albanese is in Indonesia, said the 2040s were “too far away” to wait for a replacement for the Collins Class fleet.

He claimed the capability gap would be up to two decades long, saying he doubted whether the nuclear submarines would be completed by the previous government’s deadline of 2038.

The ABC reported last week that a group of Royal Australian Navy veterans urged Defence to consider building submarines based on the Collins Class to be used before the new fleet was ready.

“Getting on urgently the Collins life extension and building more submarines are both necessary for sustaining today’s submarine capability and preparing industry and Navy for nuclear submarines,” the former submariners wrote.

Defence Minister Richard Marles has an ‘open mind’ to one change. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Former defence Minister Peter Dutton ruled out acquiring another fleet of submarines, saying: “It is not in our national interest to pretend we can have a third class of submarine — somehow, we can buy it off the shelf”.

The Chief of Navy, Vice-Admiral Michael Noonan, has also voiced his opposition to the idea.

The Collins submarines were going to be replaced by another conventional submarine fleet to be constructed in South Australia by the French Naval group under a $90bn contract.

The French program was abandoned last year when the Morrison government announced it would pursue nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS partnership with the United Kingdom and United States.

Mr Dutton said the deal meant Australia’s six Collins-class submarines would undergo “life of type” upgrades that would extend their lives by 10 years.

The upgrades would be staggered and take two years for each boat, commencing in 2026 to be completed in 2028. The first boat to be upgraded would be due to retire in 2038.

The Collins Class submarines are reaching their end of service.

It was revealed in a Senate estimates hearing in April that the scrapped French deal could cost up to $5.5bn despite the contract being torn up well before construction was to begin.

The abandoned program has already cost Australia at least $2.5bn, including $100m in termination costs as part of the deal with Naval Group and Lockheed Martin.

Mr Marles called it “perhaps the worst failure of defence procurement we’ve seen in our nation’s history” and placed the blame on a “revolving door” of Coalition defence ministers.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison earlier this year defended his decision to tear up the French contract to pursue the new AUKUS agreement.

He said Australia’s strategic environment had changed since the French deal was inked in 2016 to the extent that its submarines wouldn’t have been suitable.

“Australia needed the nuclear-powered submarines. That’s what we need to keep Australia strong and to keep Australia safe. And I was not going to allow Australia to forego that opportunity,” he told reporters in April.

Originally published as Defence Minister Richard Marles has ‘open mind’ to huge change