Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter PLAN Subs?

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

cn_habs said:

Australia is as secluded as it gets because of its geography and the Chinese and Russians have never ventured anywhere near that continent AFAIK. If they ever do decide to get nuclear subs, some weapons lobbyists must be doing their job right.

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That is not correct. Chinese and Russian subs have been regularly sighted off the coast scoping facilities.

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

collins said:

That is not correct. Chinese and Russian subs have been regularly sighted off the coast scoping facilities.

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Will you post some news article to prove your point? thanks.

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

collins said:

That is not correct. Chinese and Russian subs have been regularly sighted off the coast scoping facilities.

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Would you please provide a link?

Re: Australia to counter PLAN threat with nuclear subs?

bd popeye said:

Well thought out..not going to happen. The present US administration is just play lip service to our allies. The Aussies need to wait four more years to run this idea up the flag pole. And the real bottom line is that it is to expensive. Just my opinion.

collins, read the forum rules.

[h=3]FORUM RULES: Things to Remember Before Posting, important, please read![/h]

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it is not too expensive at all when Australia is *already* planning on spending $37 billion on 12 conventional subs. In fact, the Aussies believe that $15-20bn on working, lower operating risk Virginia class SSNs is going to be much better value for more.

US administration has already confirmed this is an option with top officials. they want Australia to subsidise their very significant Asian defence costs, which will only rise.

See also this report that seems to have been triggered by the original link above:

THE newly re-elected Obama administration has signalled it is unhappy with the Gillard government's cuts to Australia's defence spending and will take it up at a top-level meeting next week.

Read more:

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter PLAN Subs??

Collins..don't ever again open two threads on the same subject. It's unnecessary and eats up bandwidth.

bd popeye super moderator

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

cn_habs said:

Would you please provide a link?

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that is just what i am told.

also see this report in the Aussie newspapers today that looks to have been stimulated by the news story I posted above:

THE newly re-elected Obama administration has signalled it is unhappy with the Gillard government's cuts to Australia's defence spending and will take it up at a top-level meeting next week.

Read more:

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter PLAN Subs??

bd popeye said:

Collins..don't ever again open two threads on the same subject. It's unnecessary and eats up bandwidth.

bd popeye super moderator

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so sorry. was not sure if the first worked. my sincere apologies.

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

bd popeye said:

Will you post some news article to prove your point? thanks.

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it is common knowledge in the Aussie submariner community. but what I will say is this. Australians are starting to worry much more about nuclear deterrence as China ramps up its military spending. a top defence expert, professor hugh white, just published a book on the "china choice", which claimed it was America's choice. but really this is Australia's choice too. Australians never really felt threatened during the cold war, but they are much more worried about existential threats with an assertive PLAN that appears to want to project power. this is why SSNs are gradually getting more support.

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

collins said:

that is just what i am told.

also see this report in the Aussie newspapers today that looks to have been stimulated by the news story I posted above:

THE newly re-elected Obama administration has signalled it is unhappy with the Gillard government's cuts to Australia's defence spending and will take it up at a top-level meeting next week.

Read more:

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and I posted..on the previous page

The present US administration is just play lip service to our allies. The Aussies need to wait four more years to run this idea up the flag pole. And the real bottom line is that it is to expensive. Just my opinion.

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..and Pres. Obama's administration more than likely wants the Aussie government to keep their defense spending at the same level as in the past few years with no cuts. Just my opinion.

Re: Australia to looking at buying/leasing nuclear subs to counter Chinese threat?

bd popeye said:

and I posted..on the previous page



..and Pres. Obama's administration more than likely wants the Aussie government to keep their defense spending at the same level as in the past few years with no cuts. Just my opinion.

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fair point.

my understanding is that US officials don't like Australia spending 2% of GDP on defence when the US is having to spend 4-5% of GDP and Australia has little government debt, strong economic growth, and a low 5.3% jobless rate.

in Australia, some in the defence community actively promote "free-riding" on US military spending. that is, the idea Aussies don't have to spend as much, because they are covered by the US and the principle of extended nuclear deterrence.

others, as outlined in this article, feel differently