What about the oddity of converting a nuclear vessel into a diesel electric one, and lengthening the hull for some arcane reason. All to be done by the people who gave us the Collins! The whole idea is a sick joke akin to the F-35 aircraft,which is getting dearer and dearer and having more faults found all the time. And when will the first hybrid Barracuda be operational? Years from now when it will be obsolete. Still, I suppose it's par for the course in a country that blows up power stations and replaces them with windmills.

//Let The Ship Go Down With Turnbull//

Boat, not ship. Submarines are boats.

How about these Submarines just go down, and we spend the $100 billion on something worthwhile.

http://www.afr.com/news/100-billion-babies-defence-reveals-true-cost-of-new-submarines-for-taxpayers-20180529-h10ohc

Hey Diver Dan, could you advise me of even one naval battle that the French have won.

Don't forget, we want a fighting ship, not one to pull up a white flag.

Paul might have something here. We could buy quite a few cruise missals & even a few nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles for 50 million, which would be a greater deterrent than a few subs, unless the subs were so armed.

Nuclear is the only weapon that would give us any real deterrent.

Philip S,
I'm not a submarine expert, so I'll leave the explanations of why to others. But AIUI the main purpose of our subs is to surreptitiously intercept others' communications.

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Toni Lavis,
Don't tell ScoMo or he might try to stop them!

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We certainly don't want nuclear weapons. They'd be counterproductive because countries would treat us as a much bigger threat to them. Plus of course geopolitics has moved on; nobody would even consider invading us now. We need to equip ourselves for the requirements of the advancing 21st century, not the bygone requirements of the 20th.

Toni,

I've never heard the expression 'going down with the boat. I was speaking figuratively; but I suppose you have to have your peevish little digs.