Today I visited HMAS Waller, one of the Royal Australian Navy's six Collins Class submarines, to inspect the successful installation of the Replacement Combat System and new Heavyweight Torpedo.
The Replacement Combat System enables the submarine to detect, acquire and track targets. The Heavyweight Torpedo allows it to engage both surface vessels and other submarines. Together these projects - worth a combined $921 million - ensure the Collins Class submarine is one of the most capable conventional submarines in the world. Both projects are within budget and on schedule.
The decision to acquire the Collins Class was taken by the previous government in the mid 1980s. A review in 1999 by John Prescott and the late Dr Malcolm McIntosh found that the submarines could not perform at the level required for naval operations; the underlying cause was