Australia's Collin-Class Submarine Catches Fire

An incident involving submarine accident surfaced yesterday when fire broke out aboard Australia’s Collin-class vessel, HMAS Waller that had only recently returned after a long period of maintenance.

The Defence Department official was quoted as by The West Australian that there were no injuries, but four personnel who were involved in fighting the blaze had been put ashore under medical observation as a precaution.

There were no details given yet of how the fire may have begun.

"HMAS Waller had recently completed a scheduled maintenance period and was at sea as part of her return to operations," an official was quoted as saying. "A full investigation into the incident will be held."

The first of the six Australian-built diesel-electric submarines came into service with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1993, and HMAS Waller is the third sub which was commissioned in February 2001. Under the combat system upgrade programme running from 2004 to 2010, HMAS Waller became the first submarine to be upgraded with the AN/BYG-1 combat system and mk48 mod 7 common broadband advanced sonar system (CBASS) heavyweight torpedoes.

According to Wall Street Journal, the Australian government is currently reviewing a plan to replace its Collin-class fleet with 12 new subs at a cost of more than $30 billion, since the Collins class submarines have been plagued by technical problems.