PARIS — Australia’s largest-ever defense contract has gone to a French shipbuilder to produce a new generation of submarines, thrilling officials in Paris and inaugurating half a century of close defense cooperation between the nations.
French state-controlled defense contractor DCNS won out over Germany’s ThysennKrupp Marine Systems and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build 12 conventional submarines that the Australian navy expects will cost at least 56 billion Australian dollars ($43 billion), a deal which French media hailed as the contract of the century.
“Today is really a wonderful moment to celebrate the future of the Australian and French bilateral relationship,” Australian …read more
Source: Time
