Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service
The Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service has been established four times, with the initial three attempts being foiled by combat losses and Australia's economic problems.
The modern Submarine Service was established in 1964, and has formed an important element of the Australian military's capacity since that date.
Following the outbreak of World War I, both boats took part in the occupation of Rabaul in German New Guinea in September 1914.
[4] AE2 remained in the South Pacific until December 1914, when she was ordered to the Mediterranean to support the British-led operations off the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
AE2 was the first Empire submarine to penetrate the Dardanelles, achieving this task on 25 April 1915 (the day of the first landings at Gallipoli).
These submarines arrived in Australia with their tender HMAS Platypus in April 1919 and were based at Osborne House, Geelong from early 1920.
[6][7] Due to Australia's poor economic situation, the O-class boats proved to be unaffordable and were placed in reserve in 1930, before transferring back to the Royal Navy in 1931.
[9] The Australian ports of Fremantle and Brisbane were important bases for Allied submarines during World War II.
Only six boats were delivered; the seventh and eighth were cancelled in 1971 to fund the acquisition of ten A-4 Skyhawk aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm.
This service included conducting risky surveillance missions against India and Communist nations in South East Asia.
[13] These missions were cancelled in 1992 when an Australian submarine, believed to be Otama, became tangled in fishing nets and was forced to surface in the South China Sea.
[16] In 1980, the SAS was tasked to develop a maritime counter terrorist capability together with the clearance divers and conducted the first ever swimmer release from a submerged Australian submarine.
Tests conducted on HMAS Collins after she was provisionally commissioned in 1996 revealed serious shortcomings in the submarine's performance, including excessive hull noise and an ineffective combat system.
In 1999, it was reported that Waller and a second boat operated in support of the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) providing escorts for transport ships, monitoring Indonesian communications, inserting special forces and had been collecting intelligence on East Timor for months.
The LR5 submersible, which is contracted to provide the RAN's submarine rescue capability, has been based at nearby Henderson, Western Australia since June 2009.
[30] To meet the in-service date of 2026, advanced design work on the next generation of Australian submarines began in 2014.
