Regional diplomatic missions across Canberra are expecting to be briefed on the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The ABC has been told that news of Australia's decision was instead delivered to Paris by the secretary of the Defence Department Greg Moriarty.Īllied naval presence is expected to increase north of Australia - including in the contested South China Sea - as part of a coordinated tri-continental push against Beijing territorial aggression.Īustralia, the United States and Britain are expected to reorient their submarine and warship fleets to counter China's increasing regional presence. Government sources say Mr Morrison tried unsuccessfully to line up a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, but it has now been instead scheduled for Thursday. Inside military circles there is also speculation that the transition to a new nuclear submarine program could initially be overseen by Retired US Vice Admiral William Hilarides, who chairs the federal government's Naval Shipbuilding Expert Advisory Panel. Six years earlier, the K-129 had sunk 1,500 miles north-west of Hawaii while carrying ballistic nuclear missiles. In a highly unusual step, the Prime Minister also invited Labor leader Anthony Albanese and three of his senior shadow ministers to be briefed on the plan.Īmerican media reports say US President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver "brief remarks about a national security initiative" on Wednesday afternoon in Washington local time.Ī well-placed military source has told the ABC the Defence Department's general manager of submarines, Greg Sammut, has called an urgent "clear lower decks" meeting for tomorrow morning to discuss the dramatic development.Īnother senior official said "top secret" briefings have been arranged at the Defence Department on Thursday. The real target of the crew on board this giant ship was a lost Soviet submarine. The ABC understands Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened a National Security Committee of Cabinet on Tuesday ahead of coordinated announcements in Washington and London.Ĭabinet ministers were given special COVID exemptions to travel to Canberra for the top-secret discussions. In 2016, the Turnbull government announced French company Naval Group (then known as DCNS) had been selected for this country's largest-ever defence contract, to design and build "regionally superior" conventional submarines. Frances Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has described the decision to cancel a 90 billion submarine deal as a 'stab in the back', but Australias Defence Minister, Peter Dutton, says he will not apologise for the decision. Timmy Gambin, a professor in the university’s Classics & Archaeology department who worked on the project, told CNN that UM had spent 20 years “systematically surveying the seabed off the Maltese Islands,” covering more than 1,200 square kilometers (463 square miles) to date.In April 2016 Australia awarded French contractor DCNS the main contract to design and build its next generation of submarines to replace its current fleet of six Collins-class vessels. The hunt for the submarine began in 2017, when Francis Dickinson, grandson of the Urge’s commander, contacted the University of Malta (UM) to ask about its work mapping the seabed. It now lies on the sea bed, approximately 400 feet down. In January last year, HM Submarine Truculent sank in the Thames Estuary after colliding with another vessel leading to the death of 64 seamen. She was built in 1946 by Cammell Laird and belongs to the 5th Submarine Flotilla. Until its discovery this summer, both the reason for the ship’s disappearance and its final resting place were unknown.Īccording to the researchers who located the wreck, the vessel was sunk by a mine off the island. The Affray is an A-class submarine designed for service in the Pacific. HMS Urge – part of Britain’s 10th Submarine Flotilla – left the Mediterranean island of Malta on Apbut never made it to its destination of the Egyptian port of Alexandria. The wreck of a British submarine that went missing during World War II with 44 people on board has been found off the coast of Malta.
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