Submarines? Let's roll our own

The Government has sent its ``clearest signal yet'' it is leaning towards a locally designed and built future submarine a prominent analyst says.

The major piece of good news was that a number of speakers have expressed growing confidence in extending the life of the Collins-class boats until replacements are available. ``There is a consensus, from the life extension evaluation, the Collins could be put through one more duty cycle,'' Mr Davies said. ``That is effectively a life extension of eight to 10 years.''

Andrew Davies of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute was commenting on Minister for Defence Materiel, Jason Clare's, speech at the Submarine Institute of Australia conference now underway in Canberra.

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