Submarines

At over $30 billion in today’s dollars, the building of Australia’s future submarine will be the largest defence procurement project in the nation’s history.

The history of the project already goes back more than a decade, though there have been several false starts along the way.

With the strategic aim of playing the leading role in positioning Australia’s naval power in an increasingly contested Asia-Pacific region, the fleet of 12 future submarines will form Australia’s most potent power projection capability.

The government also hopes that the submarine project will provide a boost to the nation’s heavy industrial capabilities and the economy more widely. ASPI has been writing about this important project since its inception. You will find much of our input to the public discussion of the project here.

Some of the earlier papers have been overtaken by events, but many of the issues we have written about remain pertinent to the future evolution of this project.