Sam Roggeveen

So if we start with that baseline number three, what we understood was that two of those would be effectively secondhand boats from the United States.

So these would have been submarines that were already in operation in the US Navy before

They would be refurbished and then they'd be sold to Australia.

But then the third boat would be completely new.

As of last weekend, the government has announced that, no, we're no longer going to get a new submarine.

All three will now be used submarines.

And the government's argument is that this is good news because it helps simplify the process.

And they have a point.

You know, submarines like the Virginia-class are built in what they call blocks.

or trenches effectively.

So they build maybe five or six.

And then the Navy says, well we'd like to add this element, and we'd like to take that part out, and we need this new capability on board.

And so they start building six more of a slightly upgraded type.

And previously Australia would have got two different types of Virginia class submarines.

Now we're only going to get one, and yes that does simplify the process.

Well, the government has signalled that there are some cost savings, but they're actually going to be pretty modest.

So, yeah, I wouldn't expect a lot of cost saving.

Okay.

The cost, of course, is that when you get secondhand submarines, they've got less life on them and we get to operate them for less time.

Well, indeed.