Australian senator warns cost of major submarine program at risk of blowing out

CANBERRA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The cost of Australia's Future Submarine Program (SEA 1000) is likely to blow out by billions of dollars, a Senator and defence expert has warned.

The 50-billion-Australian dollar (39.8-billion-U.S. dollar) Collins-class submarine replacement project is the largest, and most complex defence acquisition project in Australia's history.

Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) Senator and former Royal Australian Navy submariner Rex Patrick said on Wednesday that military insiders had told him privately that the program was "starting to go a little bit off the rails."

French shipbuilder DCNS has been given the contract to build 12 new submarines based on its Shortfin Barracuda design.

The Department of Defence in December last year insisted that there had been "no delays to key milestones" and no "cost or schedule impacts" on the program despite two key planning documents not being delivered on time.

"Given that the project is running across three to four decades and is a (39.8-billion-U.S. dollar) program, these sorts of delays, they cascade through -- it could be a (790-million to 1.6-billion U.S. dollar) blowout on the evidence that we have at the moment," Patrick told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Patrick, who joined the Senate following former NXT leader Nick Xenophon's resignation, said that having a naval officer run the program instead of a project manager was the source of many of the issues.

"Rear Admiral (Gregory) Sammut is a highly respected and highly capable naval officer, however he's never run a major project, he's never run a minor project," he said.

"There are a number of highly qualified, highly experienced project managers in the mining industry, in the chemicals industry, in the IT industry that can be brought in to offer assistance for this extremely important program." Enditem