Japan ups the charm - Soryu sub to exercise with Navy

In a calculated move designed to impress the Royal Australian Navy and the Turnbull Government, Japan will send in April the Soryu class submarine Hakuryu and two destroyers to Sydney for joint exercises, according to an ABC report this morning.

The joint exercise with Royal Australian Navy units will include Anti-submarine warfare, communications, tactical manoeuvering and photo serials.

A design of an advanced version of the Soryu class submarine was submitted by the Japanese Government-led bid in November last year, marking the beginning of the evaluation phase of the Competitive Evaluation Process. Both Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are the key members of the consortium. A decision on the future submarine for the RAN was expected to be made before the Federal election – the date of which could be far sooner than originally expected.

Hakuryu is the third in the class that is expected to reach a total of 11. The eighth and most recent Soryu – Sekiryu – was launched on 2 November last year.      

The demonstration is something of a coup for the Japanese, who have an advantage over their German and French opponents of being able to show off an existing submarine that most closely resembles what the future submarine design might be. The French DCNS and German TKMS are submitting designs that will bear similarities to existing submarines they have built, but the French design will be a conventional version of a nuclear type and the German design will be a significantly larger, upscaled version of an existing type.  

It is expected the Japanese contingent will number approximately 430 members of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF).