The Defence Force's long-delayed $600 million purchase of anti-submarine torpedoes has suffered another humiliating setback.

The Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) is now tendering for translators at a reported cost of around $110,000 after it was discovered the technical documentation for the European-designed weapons are written only in Italian and French.

The situation has been described as a "shemozzle" by a top defence strategist.

The ADF's procurement of the MU90 anti-submarine torpedos has been a long and tortuous process and has already been savaged by the National Audit Office, which has said it has been badly handled.

In the Audit Office's report tabled in May, it said the torpedo system would not deliver what the Defence Force had initially wanted, and that it had run well behind schedule.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) was set up by the Government to provide fresh ideas on Australia's defence and strategic policy choices, and its director of operations and capability, Andrew Davies, says the project has been poorly handled.

"I believe the technical term for this project is a shemozzle," he said.

"It's been running for 12 years and it was intended to be fitted to a range of Navy and Air Force ships and aircraft.

"As the project has gone on progressively, it has been whittled down in scope to the point now where we are only fitting it to ships, and the aircraft have just been left by the wayside."

More than a decade after the project was announced, the ADF finally has the weapons, but it does not understand exactly how they work.

The torpedoes have been developed by a European consortium for the European market, and the secret technical documents describing the results of trials of the torpedo are in Italian and French.

"It's an extraordinary oversight," Mr Davies said.

"The technical documentation for something like this should be an important part of the project and should have been specified years ago."

Mr Davies says even the task of finding a suitable translator will not be easy.

"They'll be having to look for somebody who has the technical ability to translate technical documents, and that is not straightforward," he said.

"It is not like translating the daily newspaper, and [they need someone who] also meets the requirements for a security clearance at the appropriate level."

Mr Davies says he hopes the DMO has learned lessons from the mishandled project.

"Well, that is always the hope. There has certainly been some pretty substantial revisions to the project processes since this one was started," he said.

"Things shouldn't get to the point of contracts being signed before they are well understood these days, at least that's the theory. The practice remains to be proven.

"I'd say that this is one of the poorer efforts all around. We started off wanting it to put on aircraft and ships. We've only got it on ships. Wherever you look in this project there is not much good news."

Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare and senior defence officials are expected to get a progress report from the head of the company which manufactures the torpedo in a few weeks.