Australia's defence chief says he's more concerned about getting the right submarines delivered on time than building them in Australia.
Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin says while there's an emotive argument for building the navy's next generation subs on Australian soil, it's not necessarily the best thing for the project.
"From my point of view, I want to manage the risks and I want to make sure I get the capability that we need as a defence force. We are talking 30-40 years out," he told reporters in Canberra.
Australia is looking to buy up to a dozen new subs to replace the six Collins boats which start retiring from the middle of next decade.
It will be Australia's biggest ever defence procurement, costing $20-$40 billion.
The government is considering foreign designs, with the Japanese Soryu-class tipped as favourite.
There's now a vigorous debate about the process of selecting the new vessels and whether they'll be built in Australia.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin doesn't believe the longterm support of the new submarines requires them to be built in Australia.
He said the required knowledge could come from participating in construction, performing integration of the various submarine systems and basing test systems in Australia.
Key decisions will likely be announced in conjunction with the new Defence White paper set to be released around mid-year.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin said the evaluation process needed to keep moving or there was a risk of a capability gap, a period of possibly years when few or no submarines are available.
"As we do this competitive evaluation, that will help ascertain the facts and the broad areas that we need to focus on as we move forward in the whole development and building of submarines," he said.
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