Defence is "not well-placed" to demonstrate it can extend the life of Australia's ageing submarine fleet, potentially leaving the nation with a crucial capability gap after cost overruns and delays, a damning audit has found.
The Australian National Audit Office released a report on Friday into the "life-of-type extension" plan for the navy's Collins-class submarines, designed to get an extra decade of service out of them before the arrival of nuclear-powered boats.
The 1980s-designed Collins would have started to be retired from service in 2026, but the cancellation of the $90 billion French submarine program for the AUKUS deal means Australia won't get new submarines until the early 2030s, should the project go to plan.
The auditor-general found Defence's planning and implementation of the Collins-class extension was not managed in a comparable way to "its complexity, risk profile and strategic purpose".
