Australia Favored Foreign Submarines
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…
Fire Injures One aboard Australian Navy Submarine
One man suffered light burns as a result of an electrical fire onboard HMAS Waller earlier this week. The fire occurred on Tuesday, December 10 at 10 p.m. (WA time) while the submarine was undergoing maintenance alongside Fleet Base West. While conducting maintenance activities in a battery compartment Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) contractors observed electrical ‘sparking and arcing’ and smoke emanating from within the compartment. In accordance with their training the…
New Steel Processing Equipment Helps Build Australian Warships
Inventive steel processing companies provide the backbone for infrastructure, transport, shipping and consumer goods sectors. One such company, Ferrocut Australia, was called on by the Royal Australian Navy’s Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) Shipbuilder program, to provide steel plate cutting services and support for the life of the warship-building project. Ferrocut, a South Australian plate profiling business, specializes in offering oxy, plasma and laser cutting…
New Appointments Strengthen Divex Subsea Team
Divex, the international diving equipment technology company and a manufacturer and supplyer of both commercial and defense diving solutions, has made two senior appointments to support the company’s ongoing development and growth globally. As of April 2012 John Hunter was appointed Project Engineering Manager at Divex’s Global Headquarters in Westhill, Aberdeen, Scotland while in May 2012 Greg Hewitt was assigned the post of General Manager for Divex’s Asia Pacific region. As a result of increased demand for saturation diving systems…
Saab Awaits ASC Ruling
Swedish defense group Saab AB said it understood the Australian government wished to negotiate about Saab's stake in the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC), though it had not been officially informed. Saab acquired the 49 percent ASC stake during a consolidation of the Swedish defense industry last year. As part of the shake-up Saab intends to transfer the holding to Germany's Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), a major producer of conventionally powered submarines which now controls the Swedish Kockums naval shipyard. "We understand the Australian government has taken a decision to negotiate with us about the ASC stake, which they have a pre-emptive right to do," Saab senior executive vice-president Lars Josefsson said.
