Aussies buy $125 million-worth of Mk-48 torpedos to help counter ‘future threats’

Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760), guide a MK-48 torpedo during a weapons load, Dec. 5, 2023. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Nikita Custer)

SYDNEY — Australia announced today it is buying $200 million AUD ($125 million USD) worth of MK-48 heavy torpedos, which the minister for defense procurement said “will deliver a critical boost” to the country’s Collins-class submarines.

The minister, Pat Conroy, said the weapons — designed for anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare missions — will uplift “defensive and offensive capabilities” of the vessels and will also be fitted on Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines.

“The continuous joint development of the MK-48 Heavy Weight Torpedo provides the Australian Navy with the latest technology to counter current and future threats,” Conroy said in a statement. “This acquisition is a testament to Australia’s strong, long-standing alliance with the United States.”

Mainly manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), the MK-48 is the product of a joint program between the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and United States Navy. The weapons can be used and maintained both by nations’ maritime services.

A defense procurement expert here, Marcus Hellyer, noted that the US Virginia-class boats — of which Australia plans to buy three — and the planned SSN-AUKUS fleet will all use these torpedoes.

“With appropriate maintenance and updates, torpedoes have a very long shelf life, so they [will] likely be for all three classes” when the aging Collins class is included, Hellyer, with the thinktank Strategic Analysis Australia, said in an email. “Essentially you can take an RAN torpedo that has been maintained and stored at HMAS Stirling and load it into a US Navy submarine. More Mk-48 torpedoes in Australia’s inventory means we can provide them to USN submarines that are part of Submarine Rotation Force-West [SRF-W].”

SRF-W, part of the AUKUS plan to eventually create a fleet of Australia nuclear powered boats, is slated to begin in 2027. US Virginia-class boats and British Astute-class nuclear-powered attack subs will rotate in and out of HMAS Stirling, Australia’s sub base near Perth, in Western Australia.

Australia has decided to acquire the torpedoes to compensate for the glacial pace of deliveries related to other critical weapons, Hellyer suggested.

“As we’ve seen with the extremely slow deliveries of weapons like LRASM and JASSM-ER, it can take a long time for US guided weapons to show up as the US meets its own requirements or those of higher priority customers,” he noted. “It’s smart to get in early. Moreover, some weapons or components of weapons don’t have continuous production lines, so you have to act when they are available.”

The Labor Government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will soon announce the date for a federal election and that may have influenced the timing of the torpedo purchase, according to the former head of research for the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Center. Elizabeth Buchanan said the announcement was made for “pre-election spin.” Funding for the torpedoes comes from Australia’s ambitious Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise (GWEO), she said.

Still, Hellyer said the munitions, and more like them, would have tactical benefits.

“As our strategic environment degrades, it’s only smart to increase our warstocks,” he told Breaking Defense. “The issue is not so much how many submarines we have available on any given day, but how many potential targets there are out there.”