Cancellation of Collins Class Submarine Optronics System Upgrade

In April 2022, then Minister for Defence Peter Dutton announced a $381 million commitment to upgrade the Royal Australian Navy’s Collins Class submarine fleet with an advanced optronics system to improve stealth capability.

To be delivered from Osborne Shipyard in South Australia, the upgrades involved placing a digital camera on an extendable mast-raising system outside the pressure hull. The non-hull penetrating system was designed to capture imagery faster before transmitting data into the submarine digitally via a watertight cable.

The innovative technology was also expected to increase the space available in the submarines by removing the large periscope column.

The upgrades would have provided RAN crews with experience using optronics systems, which are fitted to US Virginia Class submarines and are likely to be part of the design for SSN AUKUS.

HMAS Rankin was set to be the first Collins Class submarine to be fitted with the new optronics system in 2024 (she is about to undergo a two-year Full-Cycle Docking), and the technology is expected to be operational by 2026.

In February 2024, during a Senate Estimates hearing, Senator Jacqui Lambie raised concerns about the periscope. She questioned whether the Australian Defence Force provided the best value for money with the upgrades.

By then, Defence had reportedly spent over $48 million upgrading the submarines from the current hull-penetrating periscope to an optronic mast sensor. According to comments made at the Senate Estimates, the new periscopes had yet to be trialled or installed and were in a design works phase. Defence accepted questions on notice regarding how many new periscopes had already been purchased and how many had been delivered to Australia.

Senator Lambie said, “We still haven’t decided whether we are going to use them. That is where we are at? We have spent $48 million. We have bought others; there are probably some here in Australia, and we may not even use them. I am worried about the spend here.”

“I have no idea why you wouldn’t just bring one in and trial it. If you have others sitting there, what a waste of taxpayers’ money that is. This is why we have procurement problems: $48 million. Do you know what that sort of money could do out there? Seriously.”

On 5 June 2024, the Albanese Government announced that it had approved a Life-of-Type Extension for Australia’s six Collins Class submarines. However, the government stated that an optronics upgrade for the submarines, announced by the former Coalition government, would not proceed following advice that it would have added complexity and risk to the life-of-type extension program.