Nonsensical comments, abuse, baiting, ranting and leftist stupidity will not be tolerated.
I sent this link to one of the US Sub Bloggers, Bubblehead (http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/). He's usually on top of these stories before they even reach the papers, but I guess he is on hols.
Don't forget they were also responsible for the Collins Class sub' purchase and construction (which was a God awful botch up, costing billions to fix).
Labor seems to like submarines, as long as they're built here, which is also the idea this time, I understand. . .
It's a high-tech work for the dole scheme, imho.
Surely we could buy some very quiet subs for a lot less than this?
"Perhaps they are as conservative..."
Perhaps..
"...to combat an expected arms race in the region."
Now that is very unlike leftists, usually the procedure when the other guy gets more guns is to set an example by banning and punishing your own folks from & for having any guns and then bending over in the hope the other guy thinks that being weak & cowardly is something to aspire to.
"...when regional navies such as Indonesia's, China's and India's are seeking to dramatically expand their submarine fleets..."
You mean KRudd's mandarin didn't diffuse the situation?
"Don't forget they were also responsible for the Collins Class sub..."
Make that "LABOR", too bad haloscan doesn't do bigger fonts.. 
Interestingly, I worked in Melbourne developing a mine-hunter module for the Navy, many years ago.
It was built using high-density PVC foam and vinyl-ester resins and the whole thing had to be tested at various stages for heat-tolerance and impact resitance etc.
Only after we'd built the prototype and tested it, at a cost of millions of dollars did we find out (accidentally) that the Swedes had already conducted identical prototype testing of the laminates.
One wonders if the Collins debacle was due in part to this kind of botch-up, so typical of defence contracts.
Please keep The Bomber away from any submarine upgrade.
We could buy subs from the Swedes. They have WORKING subs and they are damn good.
Hmmm... I believe the US Navy will have some retired Los Angeles class submarines soon, perhaps a deal could be made to buy them? They were built by the greatest submarine builder in the world, Electric Boat in Groton CT 
I had the privilege of going on the USS Los Angeles after it was commissioned (IIRC, 1984). The captain had invited the public to tour his boat-and we could go anywhere on the sub except the nuclear propulsion compartment. A truly magnificent vessel. The submariners were magnificent too
The LA Class are excellent boats, Betsy, I agree.
Considering how well the Collins class subs did in the exercises with the US fleet, the alleged faults were perhaps perhaps not as bad as announced in the media.
While LA class boats would be great, the problem for .au is that we don't have a nuclear power industry and so don't have the skilled people here to maintain them properly (except, perhaps for the tiny handful of people working at Lucas Height).
The Collins Class was revived after much extra expenditure, Jeff. The original faults were significant; an untried design built by total novices at highly specialised submarine construction (being us). They got it mostly right in the end, but I don't think they ever corrected the deep diving problems, which resulted from inexpert (for submarine pressure hulls) welding.
We very nearly lost one of them.
PS: the Oberons used to do well, too - diesel electrics are terrifically quiet when configured properly (one of the early Collins problems, btw).
I understand the Chinese recently embarrassed the U.S.Navy by sneaking up close in a diesel sub, James.
The Iranians have some too and the Israelis bought a few from Germany.
Seems like there's plenty of off-the-shelf options available, eh?
The Chinese are deploying old (but updated) Soviet designs, Keith. Tried and tested.
That said, the US used to run rings around the Soviets in terms of the silent service. But everyone gets lucky sometime.
The Gotland class looks great.
http://www.naval-technology.com/...ojects/gotland/
One managed to run rings as an ASW target for carrier battlegroup exercises.
Oooh - they use Stirling Cycle Engines!
Love Stirling cycle!
They do? lemme see....back in a bit.
Now, that's pretty cool!
No missile launch capability though?
Not from vertical tubes. I seem to recall a few years back reading about missiles capable of being launched from torpedo tubes, thought that might be mental masturbation on my part.
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