Philip Smart | Adelaide
The Royal United Service Institute’s national Sub Summit kicked off in Adelaide this morning (Wednesday) with more than 200 delegates hearing from both sides of politics, the DMO and the head of the Royal Australian Navy’s Future Submarine Program in the first morning.
Sustainment, intellectual property and operational requirements all came to the fore in early discussion.
Federal Defence Minister Kevin Andrews opened proceedings by reiterating the government’s current “competitive evaluation” plans for Sea 1000.
“As I have previously stated, as a government and as a nation, we have one chance to get this right,” he said.
“We have a looming security and capability gap arriving in about 10 years. T
he process that I recently announced is the best way forward to ensure that such a gap will not occur, simultaneously delivering the best possible capability to the ADF and value for money to Australian taxpayers.”
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten espoused bipartisan support for the program before proposing a Labour plan that would require bidders to commit to building submarines in Australia, with selection of a builder by the end of 2016.
“Labour’s proposing a 12-month to 18-month process involving a request for proposal, followed by a request for tender,” he said.
“There are three non-negotiable conditions for these tenders, a guarantee of submarine performance, Australian ownership of all intellectual property, and the next generation of submarines must be built, maintained and sustained in Australia.”
The Sub Summit continues until Tuesday afternoon.