The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) had to surface one of its Collins Class submarines after the vessel suffered an engine error while submerged off Western Australia.

An Australian Defence Force spokeswoman confirmed that HMAS Farncomb’s propulsion system failed and the submarine was surfaced to investigate.

“In this instance, the commanding officer chose to surface to investigate the fault on the control system for the electric motor,” the Australian quotes her as saying.

“Soon after surfacing, propulsion was restored.”

The Australian Government has recently launched the terms of review to assess complex engineering issues related to Collins Class submarines.