French Naval Group to work with ASC, Collins Class submarines builder in Adelaide, on 12 future subs project

The French Naval Group has the contract to build 12 Attack class submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

The French Naval Group, with the contract to design and build 12 Attack class submarines for the Royal Australian Navy, agreed in 2019 to look at ways to work more closely with ASC, the Australian government-owned company that built six Collins class navy submarines at Adelaide’s Osborne shipyards.

The Naval Group will leverage ASC’s experience from its Collins Program to help ensure the success of the Future Submarine Program. Their agreement details how the two companies will work through separate commercial arrangements to provide supplies and services to each other in areas including workforce development, OH&S training and services and supply chain.

The Attack class submarines will be built at the Osborne naval shipyard in Adelaide, undergoing a $500 million upgrade from 2019. Osborne naval shipyard also has been the home for ASC’s Hobart Class air warfare destroyer project.

In 2017, ASC was named as the South Australian shipbuilder for the lead and second of the navy’s Arafura Class offshore patrol vessels. This was followed in 2018 by ASC Shipbuilding becoming the shipbuilder for Hunter Class frigates. ASC Shipbuilding also became a subsidiary of BAE Systems in that year.

At the end of the Collins submarines build at Osborne in 2003, ASC started a 25-year contract for ongoing repair, maintenance and design upgrades of the submarines at the Adelaide shipyard. This was changed in 2012 to a service support contract, with work also done at ASC’s plant at Henderson in Western Australia