Page 26 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2021

26 DEFENCE BUSINESS
OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
Defence also confirmed it had not changed its position on remarks made in Estimates in 2015 by Warren King, then head of the now-defunct Defence Materiel Organisation, that Saab had an important role to play in upgrading the Collins submarines.
This was good news for Andy Keough, Managing Direc- tor of Saab Australia, who as a former commander of two Collins-class submarines and a senior business role with ASC, has the background and experience to ensure the Commonwealth is fully aware of Saab’s capabilities.
ABOVE: Gotland-class submarine HSMS Uppland separated to receive 2-metre hull insert
LOTE EXPERIENCE
The company’s upgrade credentials were on display in 2003 and 2004 when two Swedish Navy Västergötland- class submarines were cut in half by Kockums to receive a 12-metre hull insert accommodating a Stirling air inde- pendent propulsion (AIP) package. A pressurised diver’s lockout for special forces operations was also installed in the base of the sail.
Two sister boats were subsequently upgraded by Kock- ums with AIP and extensively ‘tropicalised’ after their sale to Singapore and subsequent commissioning as RSS Archer and RSS Swordsman in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
Most recently, the Gotland MLUs in 2018 and 2019 in- volved each hull being cut open in the mid-tank section, in this instance to add a 2-metre hull insert accommodating sea water and freshwater cooling and water chiller plants to meet the cooling requirements of new equipment.
Before arriving at Saab’s Karlskrona shipyard, each 62-me- tre, 1,600-tonne Gotland boat was joined at sea by company personnel to complete whole-of-platform surveys to establish the exact configuration of all on-board installations.
Once inside the assembly hall, electronic units, cabinets, cables and connectors were removed from the submarine prior to the start of ‘hot work’ (cutting, welding, and drilling).
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“AS OF MARCH 2021, ASC HAD RECEIVED $25 MILLION REALLOCATED FROM THE NOW- DEFUNCT FUTURE SUBMARINE PROGRAM TO FUND A LOTE DEFINITION PLAN”
“The comprehensive mid-life upgrade (MLU) of the two Got- land-class submarines allowing them to remain in service until at least 2030 means Saab has already undertaken in Sweden many of the things we’re seek- ing to do on the Collins-class,” Keough said.
“This is a challenging (stra- tegic) environment, we can’t afford to waste time and money doing things that have al- ready been done elsewhere and not leveraging off those les-
sons and those skills,” Keough emphasised.
“Experienced people who have done the work before are
much quicker getting through to the solution space than someone who is a qualified naval architect with significant experience in the submarine domain but none-the-less has not specifically done that job before.”
SAAB