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Monday 14 December 2009

Submarine job bonanza

THE establishment of a Submarine Design Centre in Adelaide would create another 400 to 600 hi-tech, highly skilled jobs.

The State Government has moved to secure Adelaide as the base for the design centre for the next generation of submarines.

The 12 submarines will be built at the ASC's Outer Harbor headquarters at a cost of $36 billion. The Federal Government will announce a decision about the location of the design centre early next year.

In a statement from Copenhagen where he is attending the Climate Change summit, Premier Mike Rann said he spent two days in Canberra last week pushing the state's naval shipbuilding credentials in a bid to win the centre.

"Over the next decade, the Submarine Design Centre will be charged with planning the biggest and most complex non-nuclear submarine ever built on the planet,'' he said.

In a speech to the Sydney Institute in November, junior defence minister Greg Combet suggested the need for an ``appropriately resourced design and project management cell located in Adelaide''. ``This cell must be located in Adelaide close to the builder,'' he said.

"We have seen the benefits of this approach with the AWD ($8 billion Air Warfare Destroyer) project.''

In addition to the submarines, the Defence SA Advisory Board estimates that over the next two decades, the navy will require 48 new vessels, which with support and maintenance, are likely to be worth about $250 billion. Mr Rann said the 48 new vessels would provide a significant opportunity for SA.

"That is quarter-trillion investment, the like of which this nation has never seen,'' Mr Rann said.

The major SA defence contracts include:

- $36 BILLION: Australia's biggest defence project to build 12 submarines in Adelaide. The vessels are due in the water by 2022.
- $8 BILLION: Air Warfare Destroyer contract. The three Hobart Class AWDs will be delivered between 2013 and 2016. It will create over 3000 direct and indirect jobs.
- $1 BILLION: AP-3C Orion Aircraft through-life support and maintenance program.

More at Adelaide Now 

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