South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has hit back at criticism of the federal government’s decision to build French-designed submarines in Adelaide.
A group of businessman including Dick Smith and John Singleton have taken out a full-page advertisement in The Australian slamming the decision, suggesting buying off-the-shelf nuclear subs would have been a better option.
Dick Smith says ordering nuclear powered subs and then converting them to diesel has never been done anywhere in the world.
“It’s like buying a French Airbus-380 aircraft, taking it to Adelaide, taking out the turbofan engines and putting in piston engines,” he told 3AW.
“You would be the laughing stock of the world.”
But Mr Weatherill has described the group as “sad old men” and says their proposal “looked like it was scribbled on the back of a serviette after a long lunch”.
In their advertisement the businessmen argue that retrofitting what is essentially a French nuclear submarine with a diesel engine has never been done before.
They said such a conventionally-powered sub would also come into service at a time when the rest of the world would be operating nuclear-powered fleets.
That would be like putting a propeller plane up against a modern jet.
“We will be condemning our sailors to their graves,” the advertisement said.
It also questioned the economics of the decision, saying it would be cheaper to subsidise car industry jobs and buy submarines from overseas.
-With AAP
