The Australians really only have one option for a submarine in the next decade since Astute isn't an option. It's either SSN(R) in 2035 or SSN-774/SSNX. Rolls-Royce has retooled their factory in Derby for PWR-3 so making another Astute would result in delays for Dreadnought and be very expensive.
I bet it's going to cost 50 - 100 times more to conduct the same quality and quantity of surveillance, and deliver the same quantity and quality of bombs/missiles as the equivalent Chinese drone.
Would be kinda awesome if Labor tried to poison pill the whole thing by choosing a british design then letting it fall over but i know Labor isnt that based
Even if they do, it's pennies on the dollar of what they lost due to Brexit. We're going to look back in 20-30 years and realize that Brexit was a US psyop to firm up vassalization of the UK.
Lethe
Captain
The suggestion is that Australia will acquire three Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s, with options for two more, ahead of the British design boats coming later. If that is the case, likely the Virginia-class submarines will be coming "off the shelf" from the American production line, while the British submarines will be at least partly built in Australia.
In any case we will know the full details in a few days and I will reserve comment until then.
Australia had 6 Collins class submarines which cost them around $3.37 billion USD. A single Virginia class submarine with VPM costs about as much. This program is going to go nowhere. At least not with those numbers. I expect them to buy like 3 nuclear submarines at best. 3 submarines with 2 options, and more from the UK later? Not going to happen. Unless the idea is that the US will loan them the submarines to take them back later.
Lethe
Captain
It would seem sensible for the US side of the arrangement to be a loan, but that doesn't appear to be what is being suggested across a variety of publications.
The rest of it is as expected: extensive personnel mixing, USA turning Australia into a Guam fallback position, potentially multiple bases with support infrastructure for both American and "Australian" SSNs. It's all rather depressing, really.
The rest of it is as expected: extensive personnel mixing, USA turning Australia into a Guam fallback position, potentially multiple bases with support infrastructure for both American and "Australian" SSNs. It's all rather depressing, really.
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