法国DCNS赢得澳大利亚潜艇合同

DCNS of France has beaten competitors from Japan and Germany to win a A$50bn politically charged contract to build a new fleet of 12 submarines for the Australian navy.

法国DCNS击败日本和德国的竞争对手，赢得了一份500亿澳元的、充满政治色彩的合同，将为澳大利亚海军新建12艘潜艇。

Tuesday’s announcement of DCNS as preferred bidder deals a blow to Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, who lobbied hard for a contract that would have boosted defence ties with Canberra and bolstered plans to build an arms export industry.

周二传出的DCNS成为首选投标人的消息，对日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)是一次打击。安倍此前曾为赢得这份合同努力游说。如果日方中标，不但可以促进日本与澳大利亚的防务关系，还能提振日本打造武器出口产业的计划。

Insiders in the bidding process believe Japan’s bid failed mainly due to concerns over the ability of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries to transfer technology to Australia, where the submarines will be built, and its lack of a record on delivering big defence export projects.

参与招投标过程的内部人士认为，日方竞标失败的主要原因在于，澳方担心三菱重工(Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)和川崎重工(Kawasaki Heavy Industries)是否能向其转让技术（潜艇将在澳大利亚建造），而且日方没有交付大型防务出口项目的经验。

Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, said the decision to build a new fleet of submarines in partnership with DCNS represented “a momentous national endeavour”.

澳大利亚总理马尔科姆•特恩布尔(Malcolm Turnbull)表示，与DCNS合作打造一支新潜艇舰队的决定，代表着“一项重大的国家努力”。

The French presidency described the contract win as “historic”.

法国总统办公室称，此次中标具有“历史性”意义。

Australia’s replacement of its existing submarine fleet is part of an arms race in the Asia-Pacific region led by China, which is expanding its capability across the region. Defence spending in Asia in 2014 was A$439bn (US$338bn), surpassing spending in Europe, according to Australia’s defence white paper released this year.

澳大利亚对该国现有潜艇舰队的更新，是中国带头搞的亚太军备竞赛的组成部分。中国正在整个亚太地区扩大自己的军事能力。澳大利亚今年发布的防务白皮书显示，2014年亚洲防务开支超过了欧洲，达到4390亿澳元（合3380亿美元）。

Under the winning French bid, DCNS will build 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines for the Australian navy and help maintain them over half a century.

依据中标的法方竞标方案，DCNS将为澳大利亚海军建造12艘“短鳍梭鱼”(Shortfin Barracuda)潜艇，并提供50年保养服务。

The new vessel, a conventional diesel-powered submarine using a pump-jet propulsion system, draws on the design of France’s existing Barracuda-class nuclear submarine. It represents the first time Paris will share this stealth technology (which is quieter than a traditional propeller) for submarines with another country, said DCNS.

这批新潜艇为常规柴油动力潜艇，采用泵喷推进系统，设计上借鉴了法国现有的“梭鱼”（Barracuda class，见下图）级核潜艇。DCNS表示，这将是法国政府首次将这种潜艇隐形技术分享给他国。泵喷推进比传统的螺旋桨推进更安静。

Japan had been in pole position to win the submarine contract before Tony Abbott was ousted as prime minister by Malcolm Turnbull in September. Mr Abbott had envisaged Australia buying Japan’s Soryu class submarine in a bid to deepen strategic and defence ties with Tokyo at a politically tense time in the Asia-Pacific region.

去年9月，特恩布尔取代托尼•阿博特(Tony Abbott)成为澳大利亚总理。阿博特下台前，日方曾在这份潜艇合同的竞标中处于领先位置。按照阿博特的设想，澳大利亚应购买日本的苍龙级(Soryu class)潜艇，以便在亚太政治紧张之际深化与日本的战略和防务关系。

People close to Japan’s bid said failure after spending so long as apparent frontrunner would be a source of “considerable personal embarrassment” to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and that Tokyo and the companies involved would now enter a period of “blame and recrimination” as each party sought to evade culpability.

熟悉日方竞标情况的人士称，日方在扮演了这么长时间明面上的领跑者后受挫，将给日本首相安倍晋三个人制造“很大的尴尬”，日本政府和相关企业现在将进入“埋怨和反责”期，因为各方都力求撇清责任。