[Pontiac]

How much to refit the Collins class subs to get another decade out of them?

What can I say?

I’m cheap.

[Spktyr]

The Collins class boats *still* have serious unresolved problems, not least of which being that nobody wants to serve aboard them. They will be in the fleet until 2028, but already they’re having problems with parts - since they insisted on so much native design, they’ve had both design and production issues and a lot of the replacement parts have the same problems as the originals. Not to mention a lot of the parts makers went out of business under Labour.

[Spktyr]

Or, to put it another way - the Collins class might as well have been made by the Australian branch of Lucas Electrics. Massive fundamental problems. One issue - the first sub came with French generators which turned out to be infinitely more reliable than the ‘All-Aussie’ generators fitted to the following ships. They’re noisier than the subs they replace by an order of magnitude. They’re not any more capable than the Oberons, either, and in some respects they are reportedly worse.

[Freeport]

The pressure hull is the problem. They are built for so many cycles before they are junk. And they only way to add life is to gut them and put in a new pressure hull... i.e. build a new sub.

And the Collins have been nothing but problems. So, it's probably in their best interest to get a proven design and build process for half the money.

That way they can actually man and maintain the new fleet.