One of Australia’s most experienced former defence officials has been brought in to conduct an urgent review of the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA).
The moves comes as the U.S. Navy asks Congress for approximately US$8.8 billion in emergency funding to cover unexpected “shortfalls” in its Virginia-class fast attack submarine program—the one supposed to produce the AUKUS subs.
Defence Minister Richard Marles tapped Dennis Richardson to investigate conduct at the ASA, as well as delivery of the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine program.
Richardson was the former secretary of the Department of Defence from 2012 to 2017, and secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2012.
It is not a formal review with terms of reference, but government sources say Richardson will look into complaints of a “toxic” workplace culture and very high staff churn, along with examining its structure and relationships with other agencies and the defence industry.
He is expected to report back to Marles early next year.
Boston Consulting Group has already undertaken a review earlier this year, which is widely believed to have identified issues with internal governance and reporting lines at the ASA, which only began operating in July last year.
Defence manufacturing industry sources say Marles has openly discussed problems at the ASA with them and admitted that “everything is not perfect” at a submarine conference this year.
The ASA has been led since its establishment by Vice-Admiral Jonathan Mead, but its most senior Australian submariner, Rear Admiral Matt Buckley, is set to leave after being promoted to Deputy Chief of Navy.
In September, it lost one of its most senior technical directors, who had a record of years of service in defence and the private sector.
A source at the Agency said at that time that “several other” relatively senior and experienced personnel had also left the organisation because of “concerns with the ASA’s top leadership.”
It currently employs around 500 people and will grow to between 600 and 700 over the financial year.
Working hours are also long, partly to cope with time zone differences with the United States and the UK, as the ASA scrambles to ensure facilities in Perth are ready to host, service, and maintain U.S. nuclear-powered submarines from 2027.
Staff brought in from across the Australian Public Serviceto quickly fill open roles, have subsequently been found to lack the skills necessary to do their jobs.
Marles is so far not commenting on his appointment of Richardson.
U.S. Navy Seeks Emergency Funding For its Subs
Meanwhile, further doubts have been raised about America’s capacity to produce the submarines under the AUKUS deal.An official said roughly $2 billion of the requested $8.8 billion would go towards addressing “funding shortfalls” for the two Virginia-class submarines expected in the 2024 fiscal year, and $1.5 billion would go towards a similar anticipated shortfall for the one Virginia-class boat in the FY 2025 budget.
The rest would be split between main submarine contractors General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding for increased wages and “other productivity enhancements.”
The U.S. Navy’s goal for its submarine programmes is to produce two Virginia-class and one Columbia-class submarine a year.
But its record for Virginia-class submarines is closer to 1.2 to 1.3 boats a year. At that rate it will not be capable of reaching the production capacity needed to meet Australia’s demand.
