Accompanied by the Secretary of the Department of Defence, Dr Ian Watt and Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, Defence Minister Stephen Smith arrived in New York on Sunday where he had talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and more latterly, in Washington, with his US Defense counterpart, Leon Panetta.
He told ABC Radio National that he would be having conversations with Panetta about our program for a new submarine fleet but also the joint strike fighter project which is essentially a United States project which we have a very keen interest in.
On submarines he said there were long standing and well understood sustainment and maintenance difficulties so far as the Collins Class submarines were concerned adding that he’d asked John Coles, a United Kingdom expert, to effect a review of the sustainment and maintenance of the Collins Class submarine.
“We have to do better there in terms of getting subs into the water but historically, of course, the United States have had their own very large submarine program.
They’re very experienced in this area. I obviously want to have a strategic conversation but also there are a range of things in respect of new submarine program that the United States, a discussion with the United States can and will be of assistance and they go to combat systems, to communications systems, propulsion systems.
“The United States, of course, has a nuclear submarine fleet, not a conventional submarine fleet and I have ruled out any notion or prospect or possibility of a nuclear submarine fleet so far as Australia is concerned.
“We’ll have a conventional fleet but it’ll be the largest single defence
capability project that the Commonwealth of Australia has ever seen so we’re working very hard at the early planning stages.
“It’s a project that we need to get right and that’s not just because of the experience we’ve had with Collins.”