Australia: after the breach of the "contract of the century" with France, the question of the cost of this turnaround

Presentation of the Barracuda class submarine offered to the Australian Navy until contract termination (photo from April 2016).

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Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In the aftermath of the breach of the "contract of the century" with France, in Australia, the question that some are asking is how much will this turnaround cost.

Between the penalties to be paid to Naval group for breach of the contract and what will have to be paid for the acquisition of new nuclear-powered submarines, the addition could be very heavy.

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With our correspondent in Australia,

Grégory Plesse

Passed the hour of amazement and the entry of Australia in the very closed club of the powers having nuclear propulsion submarines, comes that of making the accounts.

In any case, this is the question asked by Anthony Albanese, the leader of the Labor opposition: “

 We know that so far, we have paid 2.4 billion euros to Naval Group, that there is employment contracts that will have to be broken but also substantial compensation to be paid.

Australian taxpayers have the right to know how much it's going to cost

 ”.

How much for nuclear submarines?

The penalties to be paid to Naval Group are estimated by the Australian press at around 250 million euros.

But the other big question mark is the amount to be paid for the acquisition of these eight new nuclear-powered submarines.

An even higher amount

A question that the current Conservative government cannot answer for the moment.

He indicated that an assessment would be carried out over the next twelve to eighteen months.

But Scott Morrison nevertheless recognized that the amount could be even higher than for the "contract of the century" signed with Naval group, which concerned more than 50 billion euros.

To read also: Crisis of the Australian submarines: Paris does not take off

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