Australian Cold War Submarine Missions
During the Cold War, it was not only the United States and the Soviet Union that was competing to get ahead in the intelligence game. Other countries saw it as a way of increasing their own prestige in the international community and strengthen their ties with either of the two major powers. The Australians were no different, during the Cold War they used their Oberon class submarines to collect crystal clear video of Soviet nuclear submarines which strengthened their ties with the United States.
The missions undertaken by the Australian submarines were so secret that they were kept under wraps even from the highest levels of government. When the Australian Navy wanted to get the authorization from the Prime Minister Bob Hawke to build six Collins-class submarines they did so by showing video of what the Australian O-boats had been able to accomplish in Asia during the Cold War.
Commander Kim Pitt showed the Prime Minister a video of the one of the surveillance missions that the O-boats had undertaken in Vietnam. They had been able to their submarine escaping any notice from the Charlie-class Soviet nuclear submarine by traveling underneath and behind the sub as it moved toward the Soviet naval base in Vietnam. The camera that was attacked to the periscope of the Australian sub clearly showed the movements of the enemy sub and then the Australian sub dived to get a clear picture of the underside of the secret Soviet sub.
The missions were risky, if the Australians were caught it would have caused an international incident. It nearly did when the subs tried to get close to a Chinese naval base but instead found the area around the base filled with fishing boats. The sub got caught in a fishing net and reportedly even sunk a fishing boat before fleeing in order to escape detection and the mission was a massive failure. This mission was not revealed to the Prime Minister however, and the Australian Navy proved the benefit to their surveillance missions and the need for the Collins-class submarines.