French Barracuda submarine: the most complex artefact in Australia

By the end of last year the French were convinced they had made a breakthrough in the race to win Australia’s $50 billion submarine contract.

Over a series of meetings in Paris, L’Orient, Cherbourg and Adelaide, engineers from the French naval shipbuilder DCNS shared with Australian naval officers secret data on their submarine’s acoustic signature.

The French Barracuda submarine, with its pump jet propulsion system, matches other conventional submarines’ noise emissions at very low cruising speeds under 5 knots.

But the data showed that when the Barracuda accelerated, as any submarine must do when pursuing an enemy or evading an attacker, the French design was significantly quieter than rivals.

The French declared that they were willing to share all of their cutting-edge technology and they felt then that they had surprised and impressed the Australians.

And so it proved. Led by veteran submariner Greg Sammut, considered one of the ADF’s smartest and most diligent officers, the Royal Australian Navy’s evaluation team was very conscious that in the hunter-killer deadly game of undersea warfare, a quiet submarine wins while a noisy submarine dies.

Yesterday the Australian government publicly announced what the French government had long hoped for: Paris-based industrial group DCNS, expert in naval defence, had won the unpredecentedly large contract to build the Navy’s 12 new submarines. These 4500-tonne conventionally powered subs will be versions of DCNS’s 4700-tonne nuclear-powered Barracuda submarine. The new subs will be named the Shortfin Barracuda, after a predatory fish found in Australian waters.

On completion, as DCNS puts it, the Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A “will be the most technically complex artefact in Australia”.

http://dcnsgroup.com.au/what-we-do/sea-1000/

The Future Submarine Program will deliver Australian an affordable, regionally superior, conventional submarine capability, sustainable into the foreseeable future.

Australia must have the ability to operate, sustain, maintain and upgrade Australia’s submarine force on an enduring basis.

Australia’s Future Submarines project will be the biggest defence acquisition in Australia’s history, valued at $50 billion.

Building the submarines will be a mammoth task – at least twice the size of the Collins Class program.

On completion, the Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A will be the most technically complex artefact in Australia.

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Our pedigree

DCNS is Europe’s unparalleled leader in naval defence capability.

The firm employ more than 12,500 people globally, boasts turnover of €3.04 billion and has built 100 submarines for nine different countries.

DCNS is the only submarine design company in the world to have design competencies in nuclear and conventional submarines, safely delivering submarines ranging from 2,000 tonnes to 14,000 tonnes to navies all around the world.

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The Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A

The Australian Future Submarine Program calls for a regionally superior submarine. The requirements call for a new submarine, not one that is in existence today.

The Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A, designed by DCNS specifically for the Royal Australian Navy, will be the recipient of France’s most sensitive and protected submarine technology and will be the most lethal conventional submarine ever contemplated.

Pump jet propulsion means the Shortfin Barracuda can move more quietly than submarines with obsolete propeller technology. In a confrontation between two otherwise identical submarines, the one with pump jet propulsion always has the tactical advantage.

The sonar suite performance provided by Thales will be the best available ever for a submarine this size.

Watch Shortfin Barracuda video.

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Full transfer of stealth technology

France is offering the Australian Government complete access to the stealth technologies utilised on board French nuclear-powered general-purpose attack submarines (SSNs) and ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).

These technologies are the “crown jewels” of French submarine design and have never been offered to any other country. The very nature of these stealth technologies and the decision to release them to the Australian Government is a significant demonstration of the strategic nature of this program for the French authorities.

The United States will be responsible for supplying integrated combat systems to the Future Submarines, as well as the submarine’s weapons.

The collaboration between Australia, France and the United States will see DCNS providing design, technology and expertise within this sovereign framework.

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http://dcnsgroup.com.au/what-we-do/sea-1000/ DCNS Australia DCNS Australia is a subsidiary of DCNS, a French naval shipbuilding company and European leader in naval defence. DCNS is also an innovative player in renewable marine energy. DCNS Australia was established in April 2015, marking almost a century of cooperation between France and Australia.

Really, and with an actual “Caterpillar drive” or something very close to it.

Oh, and to C19fan, since this is going to be a completely new class of boat, combining French stealth tech and (probably) the latest in diesel/electric developments, IMHO the price tag isn’t all that surprising. My SWAG is that this is going to be positioned at the very upper end of the diesel-electric spectrum, maybe even using full-on fuel cells instead of reciprocating engines. This is because Australia needs to be able to counter China’s actions in the water to their North which means they need a fair amount of range/endurance, but doesn’t want to go full-teakettle. This will be an interesting project, and I hope that we get at least a few peeks at the systems that are going to make up the propulsion suite.

Am I missing something because $50 Aus Billion is about $40 B US or $3.33 US billion per sub. That is awfully expensive for conventional subs.

It is, but there are a few reasons for the costs that go beyond just building the boats. That money includes upgrading port infrastructure to handle them properly, upgrading facilities for building them (which will also then be available for other projects) and increased costs associated with building the submarines in Australia - it would be cheaper to have them built elsewhere but this ensures that warship building skills within Australia will not be lost - once you lose those skills and industries, it becomes much harder to get them back and that's worth a certain premium.

ASC (who will be building the submarines) employs two and a half thousand workers - they are currently building our Hobart class air warfare destroyers, but that work will start scaling down next year and be complete by 2020 - this deal means that industry and its skill base will survive.

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