Japanese submarine to visit Australia in bid to win lucrative defense contract

Japan will next month send one of its high-tech Soryu class submarines to Australia in a bid to strengthen its chances of securing a lucrative defense contract to build Australia's next generation submarine fleet, reports said Friday.

The Soryu class submarine will join forces from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in conducting a number of joint training exercises, a further effort to spruik the capabilities of the sub it is offering to the Australian government.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which obtained a copy of the itinerary, the Japanese navy will send the submarine, as well as two helicopters and two destroyers.

Dr Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute told the ABC that Japan was "clearly confident" in their vessel, and labeled the exercise as a significant development in the competition for the contract.

"By sending a Soryu Class submarine down to work with our navy, they're clearly very confident that the Soryu will impress and when you look at what they're doing -- they're doing anti-submarine warfare exercises -- they're doing tactical maneuvering, communications, (photographic exercises) and so forth, " Davis told the ABC.

"Clearly the goal here is to demonstrate how effective the Soryu is in terms of tracking and evading being tracked by our ships."

The news follows last week's visit to shipbuilding yards by French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in the hope France might beat out Japan and also Germany to secure the contract.

Davis told the ABC that both French and German officials would be watching the Japanese exercises "with a great deal of interest", as the Australian submarine contract is currently the most lucrative on offer.

He said the Soryu sub was a tried and tested model, whereas both European machines are prototypes only.

"It'll be interesting to see how the German and French bids respond to this because there is no (French submarine) in existence at the moment," Davis said.

"The French boat, that's something brand new, and the same goes for type 216 from the Germans -- so the French and the Germans will be watching this with a great deal of interest."

The government has previously indicated that a final decision on which submarines will replace the current, ageing Collins class subs, would be made by "mid-2016".

The Soryu class subs will make their way to Australia sometime in April.