Japanese warn of risks in rival submarine plans (Australia)

THE AUSTRALIAN ^ | FEBRUARY 16, 2016 | Rick Wallace

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The corporate executive at the head of Japan’s submarine bid has warned of the “risk” in retro-fitting a nuclear submarine with a diesel engine as proposed by the French bid, and that scaling up a smaller design would create technical “challenges”.

The caution comes as bid ­leader Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also said it would be willing to bid for future warship contracts in Australia and to launch satellites for the Australian government or telecommunications companies to augment its campaign for the $20 billion submarines contract.

MHI chief executive Shunichi Miyanaga, when asked about converting a nuclear submarine to run on diesel, said “the change of the drive system may take a lot of time”.

“I think that there will be some risk,’’ he told The Australian in an exclusive interview at the end of a week-long visit to Australia.

“To have a very proven operational level and maintenance level, I guess (that will take) some time.

“The nuclear submarine is a turbine-powered submarine, but a diesel engine with a generator and (electric) motor is a quite different machine.”

France’s DCNS’s bid for the eight to 12 submarines being bought to replace the Collins-class sub involves converting its 5000-tonne Baracuda-class nuclear submarine to diesel.

Although he did not mention the French or German bids by name, Mr Miyanaga also flagged “challenges” with upscaling an ­existing design, something Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems proposes to do in its bid by modifying its 2000 tonne Type 214 class vessel.

Mr Miyanaga said it had taken Japan “decades” to scale up its smaller submarines to the 4000 tonne Soryu model. “Our advantage and our supremacy is our submarine is the only one with a size of 4000 tonnes using a diesel engine. The usual size of a diesel submarine is 2000 tonnes,’’ he said.

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