By Marcus Hellyer*
The word on the street is that the government intends to make a decision by Christmas on whether to relocate full-cycle dockings of the Collins-class submarines from Osborne in South Australia to Henderson in Western Australia.
Full-cycle dockings are the two-year-long deep overhauls that ASC conducts to prepare the boats for their next 10 years of service. They will also be the foundation of the life-of-type extension that’s intended to keep the Collins a relevant capability until its eventual retirement sometime in the 2040s.
