Recently four of Australia’s six home-grown Collins-class diesel-electric submarines were spotted frolicing in the West Australian Exercise Area northwest of Rottnest Island near Cockburn Sound. The quartet, HMAS Collins (S73), HMAS Farncomb (S74), HMAS Dechaineux (S76) and HMAS Sheean (S77) were taking part in exercises Lungfish 2019 and Ocean Explorer 2019 in the Indian Ocean.
Able to “snort” at a shallow depth for just a few minutes in a 24-hour period to keep their batteries topped off, the sight of four of these modern SSKs in formation on the surface is rare.
Not to let a good time go to waste, the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) joined in on the synchronized swimming.
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