Richard Marles admits lite-on sub refit on the cards

In a bombshell admission, Richard Marles has conceded the government is considering scaling back life-extending upgrades of the navy’s Collins-class submarines.

Collins-class submarine HMAS Farncomb at the dock at ASC in Adelaide. Picture: Kelly Barnes

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Richard Marles has conceded the government is considering scaling back life-extending upgrades of the navy’s Collins-class submarines in a bombshell admission that raises the prospect of a widening capability gap before the nation’s nuclear subs are delivered.

The Defence Minister said the government would be “managing” the scope of the life-of-type extension works to ensure the two-year overhauls could go ahead from next year.

The statement followed an exclusive report by The Australian revealing government-owned submarine builder ASC had failed to complete the necessary design work for the first of the overhauls from next year.

Multiple sources said the ­planned “LOTE lite” upgrades would leave the first boat in line, the 27-year-old HMAS Farncomb, with its main motor, diesel engines and generators in place, rather than having installed new ones as ­planned.

Mr Marles said the current plan was to do a full 10-year upgrade but argued it would be technically challenging and confirmed key systems on the submarines could go unreplaced.

“As we do the life type extensions on the Collins-class submarines, we need to be managing what new equipment we put on to the submarines with making sure that submarines are out the door, as it were, in a timely way, so that we have the availability of those submarines,” he said.

“And that management of putting capability on but also making sure that submarines are available for operation has always been a tension which just needs to be managed.

“But going forward the pressure on that is really going to be significant, and we’ll have to be really smart in the way in which we do that.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles at the Osborne shipyard with Commodore Steve Tiffen in 2022. Picture: Mark Brake

The original LOTE plan was to cut open the subs and replace all of their key systems including the motor, engines, generators, switchboards and command and control systems, giving the boats an extra decade of operational service.

Failing to replace key systems will undermine the boats’ reliability and shorten their planned lifespans.

But despite warnings the submarines will be significantly handicapped if the refits are scaled back, Mr Marles said fears of a capability gap were overblown.

“As long as we see an evolving capability, we don’t have a capability gap,” he said.

“And so I am confident we can get there, but I’m not sanguine about the challenge in front of us.”

The uncertainty over the LOTE program follows a high-level warning to the government, revealed by The Australian last year, over ASC’s ability to deliver the complex upgrades.

Former US navy deputy assistant secretary Gloria Valdez told the government in her classified report that the scale of the ­planned life extensions had never been attempted, and expressed concern that ASC lacked the ­design and engineering experience to undertake the work.

The government maintains the Collins boats are the world’s most capable diesel-electric submarines, but there have been growing questions over their reliability.

The Australian revealed last November that only one of the six boats was operational, amid maintenance delays, ­corrosion problems and long-running industrial action at ASC.

The government listed the Collins as a “project of concern” the following month, triggering closer ministerial oversight of the maintenance schedule and the LOTE plans.