Australia has been ‘very slow’ to take up autonomous submarine technology

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]out of the news in relation to August and Australia's submarine deal. Is it a dud? This is interesting. Three Virginia class submarines from the United States rather than a mix of old and new boats.

[00:00:14]It's confirmed on the weekend with meetings between the Deputy PM and Hixson, the US Defense Secretary, that we will get only used boats. Also, concerns about delay and US priorities.

[00:00:28]Join me now by news defense analyst Dr. Peter Jennings. Well, as I understand it, Peter, correct me if I'm wrong here. We were going to get one new and two second-hand subs. Now, the complement will be three second-hand.

[00:00:45]>> Yes, that seems to be the deal, Peter, and I think that the main factor that's bringing the situation about is that the Americans can't build these submarines quick enough for their own needs. Right now, they're building about one and a third every year. They They need to be building something like two and a third in order to supply their needs and ours with new boats. And I think facing reality, that's just not going to happen inside a decade.

[00:01:14]So, here's the fallback plan. It's three second-hand Virginia class boats.

[00:01:20]If we get the the block of boats, the build of boats that we're aiming at, they'll have about 20 years plus life when we take them over.

[00:01:31]Um and frankly, I would be happy to accept a 10-year-old Virginia class boat anytime ahead of what we currently have, which is six um 20 and 30-year-old Collins class boats that are almost at a point where they're going to cease to be functional.

[00:01:47]So, um it's not perfect, but it's it's a it's an outcome that reflects reality of how fast the Americans can build.

[00:01:55]>> And talk to me, how many boats do the Americans have in their fleet and what are what's their projections for new boats into the future?

[00:02:02]>> They're aiming to have something in the order of about 35 to 40 Virginia class boats. It's a continuous build.

[00:02:09]>> [snorts] >> And what they do is they they put them out as in what they call blocks of five boats each. We're looking at block four which would started to be constructed in 2020.

[00:02:21]And they will continue with that build.

[00:02:24]But you know, that is frankly the numbers the Americans are looking at are the bare minimum for what their navy really needs to deal with the China threat. And for them to be passing those boats to Australia, that's a massive vote of confidence in us. Sometimes I think a bit more confidence than we really deserve Peter, but that's nevertheless the plan which the the Trump administration has locked on to it.

[00:02:49]All right, let let's go to what you have written about today in the Australian.

[00:02:53]Um I'm going to ask, you know, why aren't we just taking as many old subs as we can or second-hand subs for anywhere we can in terms of the the nuclear capability, maybe even British subs. I'm not I'm not that fussed about it and putting our time and effort into these high-tech autonomous subs or or perhaps buy a cohort of them from somewhere as well. I mean I've never been sold on the idea that we're going to make these subs in South Australia. What can we do to get as much kit equipment assets Australia as fast as possible and talk us through what an autonomous boat build might look like.

[00:03:34]>> So we are currently building we in Australia are currently building vessels called Ghost Shark which are about the size of a Greyhound bus. They're quite a substantial autonomous submarine which you can sort of mix and match according to the missions you're planning to run.

[00:03:51]You could have it as an intelligence gathering ship. You could have it as a torpedo firing vessel.

[00:03:58]And the Ghost Sharks have been I I think a shining example of where new military technology is going. We started to produce them or an American company called Anduril started to produce them with Australian modifications at a greenfield factory in Sydney.

[00:04:15]A large part of the whole form of these ships is actually 3D printed. It's It's a remarkable piece of technology using artificial intelligence. And they can be produced for something like 60 or 70 million dollars a copy compared to the billions that we'll spend for crude submarines in the future.

[00:04:36]And Peter, if you look at what's happening in Ukraine, the success that the Ukrainians have had in sinking large parts of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, they're doing this with uncrewed autonomous surface and subsurface platforms.

[00:04:51]And I I do wonder.

[00:04:53]I share some of your concern. Are we Are we really going to be building crude nuclear submarines in Adelaide in the 2040s when it may well be that autonomy uncrewed systems is the way that all modern defense forces will go.

[00:05:08]Australia has been very slow, very slow to take up this new form of technology, but we're now just at that cusp.

[00:05:15]And I think it's going to actually change a lot of future defense acquisition plans over the next few years.

[00:05:22]>> You are not wrong. This is all debate that we're not clever enough to build a nuclear power station, but we're somehow clever enough to build all of these nuclear subs when they're one in the same thing these days. I just think there's something wrong with the whole idea in the first place.

[00:05:36]Peter, thank you.