According to information published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on June 16, 2021, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison warns Macron concerning the Attack-class submarine program raised his dissatisfaction.
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Attack-class submarine (Picture source: Babcock)
The French President Emmanuel Macron assured Australia of commitment to the submarine deal during his meeting with the Prime Minister and guaranteed the respect of the time limit. Scott Morrison thanks France for the ARC 21 exercise in Indo-Pacific in May earlier.
In Mars 2021, we wrote about the risk of Australian renouncement concerning the deal and about the travel of the Naval Group's CEO, Pierre Eric Pommelet, in Australia to save the agreement.
The Attack-class submarine (based on a conventional version of the Barracuda SSN or Suffren-class) is a future class of submarines for the Royal Australian Navy based on the Shortfin Barracuda proposal by French shipbuilder Naval Group (formerly known as DCNS) to replace the Collins-class submarines. The class will enter service in the early 2030s with construction extending into the late 2040s to 2050. The Program is estimated to cost $50 billion and will be the largest, and most complex, defence acquisition project in Australian history.
The armament of the Suffren-class submarine includes four 533mm torpedo tubes and 20 storage racks for various weapons including F21 Artemis heavy torpedoes, Exocet SM.39 Block 2 anti-ship missiles with a range of 50 km, SCALP naval cruise missiles with a range of over 1 000 km, and FG29 mines. Two mines can be carried per weapon rack.
