It was the smallest of sounds, too soft for human ears but deemed loud enough to potentially doom an Australian submarine.
Two weeks ago, behind closed doors in a shipyard in the German port of Kiel, the secrets behind Australia’s $150 billion submarine decision were finally revealed. It was a moment that left the Germans stunned. They were told for the first time that they had lost the bid because their proposed Australian submarine had an “unacceptable’’ level of “radiated noise’’.
In the world of submarines, noise equals potential detection and death, but when the Germans pressed the Australian officials in the room that day to explain further they were rebuffed. That information was classified, the Australians told them.
In a short and testy exchange, the truth became clear — France had won the largest defence contract in the nation’s history because it had best achieved the sound of silence. As a spying platform against China, and in the case of war, the proposed French submarine was seen to be more stealthy than those proposed by Germany or Japan.
But this is a $150bn judgment call — the construction phase is worth $50bn, with the sustainability of the submarines running to an extra $100bn over the life of the vessels — that the Germans fiercely contest, at least in private. It is also one that threatens to undermine relations with Berlin in the same way as the rejection of Japan’s bid has harmed Canberra’s ties with Tokyo.
The confidential debriefing for the failed German submarine bid took place inauspiciously on Friday the 13th this month, inside the historic Kiel shipyards.
Five Australian defence officials, led by the director-general of the Future Submarine Program Commodore Mike Houghton, stood in front of 11 senior representatives of German shipbuilder TKMS and representatives from the German ministries of defence, economic affairs and the foreign office. The presence of the government officials reflected what Germany had invested in the bid, up to and including lobbying by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Australian delegation, which one German observer described as “sheepish in their body language’’, handed out a document marked “PROTECTED — Sensitive”, summarising the reasons for its decision.
At the same time, on the other side of the world, the head of the Future Submarine Program, Rear Admiral Greg Sammut, was leading an Australian delegation on May 12 and 13 around various ministries in Tokyo, including the Ministry of Defence, to tell Japan why its bid failed.
Stealth issues also played a key role in Japan’s defeat.
If the Australian officials in Kiel hoped the Germans would be a passive audience, they were quite mistaken.
Led by TKMS deputy chief executive Dieter Rottsieper, the Germans doggedly questioned every key assumption the Australians had made. The Australian delegation began the two-hour debrief by assuring the Germans that the decision to reject their bid was not swayed by politics, the media or other factors. It was based entirely on the need to choose a regionally superior submarine that could be sustained through its life in Australia.
But, they said, the truth was that despite Germany putting forth an excellent plan for the local defence industry to sustain the boats, the submarine itself was not good enough.
The Germans were told that the “critical issue’’ was that their submarine was too noisy.
