Defence Minister Kevin Andrews has promised a "conservative" approach to deciding on Australia's next generation of submarines, following a tour of a key shipbuilding site in Adelaide.

It was Mr Andrews' first tour of the ASC facility at Osborne since replacing former defence minister David Johnston, who said he would not trust the firm to "build a canoe".

On a private tour of the site, Mr Andrews was shown construction of the Air Warfare Destroyer project before inspecting the Collins Class fleet.

He described the visit as a "fact-finding mission" but would not shed light on the crucial issue of whether the future submarines would be built locally or overseas.

"We've not ruled anything in or out at this stage," he said.

"We'll do it in a very cautious, from my perspective, we'll do it in a conservative way. We'll make sure we get the right decision for the defence of Australia.

"We haven't got a specific timeline at this stage and it's always more important to get the right decision than to be meeting any artificial timeline."

Mr Andrews was flanked by South Australian Liberal Senator David Fawcett who said he thought Mr Andrews' visit was a "good sign" for local construction.

"It's very positive for South Australia that the minister's been prepared so early in his governorship of his portfolio to come to South Australia and to engage with ASC on both the Air Warfare Destroyer program and the submarine build," he said.

"It's public knowledge that he doesn't have a background in defence so for him to come and see the complexity of the projects ... I think that's very positive."

Mr Fawcett also confirmed there would be overseas input in the design of the vessel.

"We will partner with somebody, whether it be the Swedes, the Germans, the Japanese or the French, in the design of this submarine," he said.

Hamilton-Smith says overseas design partner will be involved

State Defence Industries Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith said he had a very productive meeting with Mr Andrews, but would not go into specific details of the discussion.

After strained relations with Mr Johnston, Mr Hamilton-Smith said he hoped "everybody has pressed the reset button", but said he accepted there would be overseas input in the vessel's design.

"I can't think of an instance where Australia has ever built a warship without a design contribution from an overseas partner," he said.

"There will be a design partner. The key thing though is that the 120,000 man years of work on offer here is principally carried out in Australia."

Mr Hamilton-Smith said he wanted to see the full detail of all of the possibilities being considered.

"There is a Japanese option, there is a Swedish option, there is a German option, there is a French option. There may be other options," he said.

"We'd like to see all of that information put out there in an open and transparent way.

"At the end of the day, these are decisions for the Commonwealth and for the Navy.

"Our role is to influence those decisions in the best interests of Australians and South Australians and we'll be doing that."