We don't know exactly why Malcolm Turnbull's government chose the French to build 12 submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. But the most expensive military contract in the nation's history seems to have been determined by sound.
The French proposal for what may be the largest non-nuclear submarine ever had one crucial advantage over similarly priced competitors:
it will thread its way through ocean canyons more quietly, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a Canberra think tank partly funded by the Defence Department.
Stealth is the most important attribute of submarines. Whether French underwater jets will keep Australia's almost 100-meter-long submarines undetected by the People's Liberation Army Navy is impossible to predict. The submarines haven't been designed yet. ...MORE
