Shoebridge, Sen David

Senator SHOEBRIDGE: You know that one of the challenges you face in getting any surplus Virginia class submarines is the fact that the US has made it clear that the priority for their industrial base and the priority for the increase of any production of nuclear submarines is actually going to go to the Columbia class submarines, which are vastly bigger and more complex submarines than the Virginia class submarines, and that, in addition to the Virginia class submarines of 2.33 a year, they have to also churn out, from the same industrial base, the Columbia class submarines at the rate of one per year. That's where the $17 billion is going, isn't it? Vice Adm. Mead : Not all of it. That's not correct. It's a poor characterisation.