Kevin Andrews News

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) will investigate the leak of classified documents about the timeframe for building Australia's new fleet of submarines. The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered the investigation. A report in The Australian newspaper has referenced "several sections of the draft white paper" that was produced under former prime minister Tony Abbott and former defence minister Kevin Andrews. The papers show that under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's reign, the plan was to bring new 12 submarines into service by the mid-2020s. The story published information from a classified draft of the defence white paper written while Abbott was PM and while Kevin Andrews was defence minister.

China was warned by many the United States and the European Union  that it should respect a ruling later this year on its dispute with the Philippines over territory in the South China Sea, reports Reuters. In a message has been sent to China, which is attempting to turn the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea into military strongholds, US warned that its self-serving actions are unacceptable. With the South China Sea in mind, a joint statement by the leaders of ASEAN set forth the importance of maintaining maritime security and safety by ensuring the right to the freedom of navigation, nonmilitarization and self-restraint. It avoided making pointed references to China but implicitly issued a warning regarding China's outrageous behavior.

The ouster of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has further weakened a Japanese bid for one of the world's most lucrative defence contracts, a A$50 billion ($36 billion) programme to build stealth submarines for Australia, sources say. Australia got its fifth prime minister in as many years on Monday after the ruling Liberal Party voted to replace Abbott with former investment banker Malcolm Turnbull, following months of infighting and crumbling voter support. Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who ended a decades-old ban on weapons exports last year, enjoyed a close relationship that saw Japan emerge as the early front runner to replace Australia's aging Collins class subs.

India and Australia have commenced the first bilateral maritime exercise, Ausindex15, in Visakhapatnam, India, strengthening defence cooperation between the countries. Building on the personal relationship of Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Abbott, the Minister for Defence, the Honourable Kevin Andrews MP, recently visited India to further develop, with his counterpart Minster Manohar Parrikar, the Framework for Security Cooperation. “India is the emerging democratic super power of Asia. It is therefore sensible that the relationship between India and Australia be developed and strengthened,” Mr Andrews said. The maritime exercise…

Thank you for being here on this very important day. Today, is a significant milestone for the Air Warfare Destroyer Project, marking a big step forward towards the delivery of three highly capable warships to the Royal Australian Navy. The launch of Hobart clears the way for progress on all three destroyers. The AWD Alliance can now focus on ship completion and system commissioning for Hobart, which will be followed by sea trials next year. And with Hobart in the water, the second destroyer, Brisbane, can soon take its place on the hardstand to undergo final block consolidation, and the keel for the third destroyer, Sydney, will be laid.

Australian Defence Minister Kevin Andrews has requested Japan to participate in procedures to become Australia's partner in a project to jointly develop next-generation submarines. Andrews made the request in a telephone conversation with Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani who responded positively, Japan's Jiji Press news agency reported. In their telephone conversation, Andrews was quoted as telling Nakatani that Australia hopes to study the feasibility of the two countries jointly developing a submarine, as Japan has the necessary technology, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported. "Australia will initiate a procedure to choose a partner for the development, and asks Japan to consider joining the procedure," the minister said.

Japan will agree this month to give Australia classified submarine data, an unprecedented step signalling Tokyo's intent to join competitive bidding to sell Canberra a fleet of stealth subs, said two Japanese officials familiar with the plan. The "competitive assessment" will see Germany's ThyssenKrupp and France's state-controlled naval contractor DCNS separately competing with a Japanese government-led bid for such contractors as Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. Japan had been the front runner in the planned sale of around 12 vessels, for as much as $40 billion, to replace Australia's ageing Collins class submarines, sources have said, until Prime Minister Tony Abbott opened up the bidding under pressure from opposition and ruling party lawmakers.

Australian government plans to spend 50 billion Australian dollars (US$39.39 billion) on powerful new submarines, has become a political football at home, reports Reuters. The opposition said it wanted to invite Sweden to join Germany, France and Japan in submitting tenders for submarine fleet, as part of a proposal to end political gridlock on the project. The Government has rejected a Labor proposal to further open up the submarine tender process as "complete fantasy" and a "mirage". Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismissed the Labor plan warning the nation could be left without any operational vessels. He also reminded Labor it had six years in government from late 2007 to make a decision about replacing the Collins class fleet.

The Australian Government was in favour that most submarine building would be done overseas, says a report in ABC. Cabinet’s national security committee last October favoured Australia’s new submarine fleet being mostly constructed overseas with the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) having only limited work, according to the ABC’s Four Corners. The program was told this “by sources intimately involved with the project”. The submarines became an issue for Tony Abbott in the run up to the unsuccessful motion to spill the leadership, when he was forced to make promises about the involvement of the South Australian industry. The decision informed former Defence Minister David Johnston’s statement that he wouldn’t trust ASC to build a canoe…

Australia has announced that it would formally invite France, Germany and Japan in the bidding process to build its new fleet of nine submarines in a project worth $39 billion. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that there was Germany and France which are involved in a wider range of submarines and Japan which builds the best large conventional submarine in the world. The process will take about 10 months before a winning bidder is selected, he said. However, Swedish defence company SAAB, which built Australia's current Collins-class submarines, was excluded from the shortlist as it has not built a submarine in two decades. The defence ministry will invite contenders to present options regarding design and construction…

The Australian Government will gift two recently-decommissioned Landing Craft Heavy vessels, including a package of spare parts, to the Philippines Government, the Minister for Defense Kevin Andrews announced today. Andrews said the former Royal Australian Navy vessels HMAS Tarakan and Brunei would be gifted to the Philippine Navy after being refurbished with new safety and navigation equipment. “I expect the vessels will be refitted and ready for hand over in May 2015,” Andrews said. The Landing Craft will be commissioned in the Philippines Navy and will provide additional intra-theatre sealift capability. A lack of sealift capability hampered efforts to assist Philippines’ coastal areas devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

Australia needs new submarines. That much is clear. Where these subs are to come from and where exactly they will be built remains far less clear. Federal Liberals in the state are already furiously lobbying him to build the next fleet locally, rather than opt for an overseas design. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute also said the possible acquisition of Japanese submarines by Australia raised significant challenges. The case for building the next generation of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) submarines in Australia begins with the stand-out attributes that make submarines so important for Australia as a whole: they must be able to operate in areas a long way from home, without air or sea control, to watch, listen, evaluate and act when necessary.