Although the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) currently has a shortfall of 37 per cent in its establishment of submariners, it can still fully man three of its six Collins-class submarines, according to navy chief Vice Admiral Russ Shalders. About 45 sailors are required to crew a Collins-class submarine. Roughly half of them are specialist technicians with skills keenly sought by mining companies involved in Australia's resources boom. Adm Shalders told a parliamentary committee in Canberra on 4 June that the RAN needs about 670 submariners and currently has about 430. His directed level of operational capability is to fully man two submarines. "If we had four or even five hulls available at any one time we would be able to man all of those submarines, but we would have no shore roster and very few support staff," he added in remarks to Jane's.
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