Australia’s new Defence White Paper and associated policy papers provoke significant major power interest, largely because Australia is looking, for the first time, at forward projection of capability. But it faces enormous challenges in rebuilding its defense industrial capabilities.
One of the Royal Australian Navy’s six Collins-class SSKs: Major work would extend its service life to the mid-2030s. The questions remain as to whether Australian industry can gear up to make sufficient changes to the vessels’ propulsion systems to make them viable while it also prepares to build 12 of the the new class of submarine as required by the 2016 Defence White Paper
