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Taking the Past to the Future:
The Collins Submarine Project and
Sea 1000
Author: Derek Woolner
Volume 5, Number 3 (Spring 2009), pp. 47-71.
Abstract
Australia has commenced a project to build a new class of submarine, due to begin entering service in 2025. They are to have greater capability than the Collins class that preceded them, with a strategic potential as launch platforms for land attack cruise missiles and improved tactical flexibility in networked joint operations. Management of this project can be assisted by studying the Collins submarine project, particularly the successes obtained through the Navy’s development and maintenance of a robust concept of objectives for the Collins and the Commonwealth’s ability to command access to the means to rectify problems when the project was in difficulties. From this perspective, the paper argues that a concept of operations with greater clarity around issues of joint operations needs to be formulated to guide development of the new submarines and that active use of contingency funding can be an effective tool in risk management during their design and construction.
About the Author
Derek Woolner is a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. He is co-author of The Collins Class Submarine Story: Steel, Spies and Spin, released by Cambridge University Press in April 2008. Derek has written extensively on maritime border control issues, military capability development, acquisition management and defence finance, and drafted the report of the Parliament’s Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade into Australia’s mine countermeasure needs. Derek was Director of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Group of the Australian Parliament’s research and policy advice services until January 2002. Early in his career, Derek was policy adviser to Defence Ministers Lance Barnard and Bill Morrison. During this period he was involved in the acquisition of the FFG-7 frigates, P-3C Orion LRMP aircraft and Leopard tanks. derekwoolner@netspeed.com.au.
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