The SIA has submitted its views to the Defence White Paper team, via the public consultation process. Our submission argued that Australia's prosperity depends on its ability to trade and hence that the security of our distant Sea Lines of Communication is vital to us. We pointed out that a middle power such as Australia must use assymetric capabilities to achive influence far from home, and that a strong submarine force capable of long range operations along our SLOCs is going to be an increasingly important capability to Australia in the more uncertain future.
Our full submission is below. A summarised version (to meet the DWP team's 1500 word limit) was submitted electronically and can be seen on the DWP website at http://www.defence.gov.au/uAT/whitepaper2013/submissions.htm.