Shades of The Hunt for Red October...with diesels ..........
Good for France!
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.