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Australia, France sign submarine deal

French national builder DCNS won A$50 billion bid earlier this year to build 12 submarines in southern Australia

Ekip  | 20.12.2016 - Update : 20.12.2016
Australia, France sign submarine deal File photo

Australia

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE, Australia

Australia and France signed a multi-billion dollar deal Tuesday to build a dozen submarines in the southern Australian city of Adelaide.

A statement released by the office of Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull said the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the submarine fleet was inked by Turnbull and French Minister for Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The statement said the agreement “will further strengthen the long and proud Australia-France defence relationship, which was forged more than a century ago on the battlefields of World War I”.

The project worth A$50 billion ($36.3 billion) with the French national builder Directions des Construction Naval Services (DCNS) is Australia's largest defense procurement project.

“The submarines will be built in Australia, by Australians using Australian steel,” said Tuesday’s statement, adding that the program would generate thousands of jobs in the country -- benefiting manufacturers, small businesses and high-tech innovators.

DCNS won the bid for the project against Japanese and German competitors in April.

The industrial group will model the new submarines on France’s Baraccuda class submarines, which are just entering service.

But unlike the nuclear-powered French Barracuda, the Australian subs will be converted to diesel propulsion.

They are due to replace the Collins-class fleet built in Australia in the 1990s under license from Sweden.

During bidding, DCNS not only promised to build the subs at the Australian navy shipyard in Adelaide, but to buy local for virtually everything except some very specialized components.

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