Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin has declared that he does not believe the Future Submarines would have to be built in Australia in order for them to be sustained here.

When questioned about whether there are national security concerns associated with the argument about where the submarines are built, he stated: “There’s an emotive argument for me. I don’t believe you have to build to be able to sustain in the country. You have to know the system and you have to know it well to be able to do it…if we integrate, if we have our test systems here; we’re participating in the construction, you get the knowledge through that to be able to sustain it.”

Air Chief Marshal Binskin stated that the Future Submarine program needs to keep making progress.

“We do need to work the process and keep it moving forward, and therefore as we do this competitive evaluation that will help obtain the facts and the broad areas that we need to focus on as we move forward in the whole development and building of the submarine,” CDF said during a media conference in Canberra.

“So the current pace needs to be maintained or we do risk the capability gap out in the future.”