Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates 2.0

[John Fedup]

Except for this HUGE caveat: "While industrial delays might affect the delivery of the submarines, no political decision had been made to alter the schedule."

As everyone knows US yards can't deliver on time* that seems like a polite way of saying "don't expect your first SSN in 2032".

* 13 Virginias currently building to be delivered between 2025-2032. However both 2025 deliveries have already been pushed into 2026. Also even if the planned production rate increase from 1.3 to 1.6 SSNs/year is achieved, this is still far below the 2.3 SSNs/year that the USN has stated it needs to turnaround its shrinking fleet and have 2 Virginias to spare for Australia
** The DoD plan critically hinges on the refueling and life extension 5-7 older SSNs. This plan is not going well, with the first hull (SSN Cheyenne) now 5 years into a planned 2.5 year overhaul.
*** Meanwhile, ~20 SSN/SSGNs are being retired during the same time period (16 Los Angeles + 4 Ohio SSGNs) having reached the end of their reactor lives, so no way to extend them further

Some real issues with new production of both submarines and surface ships in the USA (and elsewhere) but wrt submarines, SSN and SSGN retirements absolutely complicate things. IMHO, submarine production should be the priority, even at the expense of the surface fleet given the rapid advances in anti-ship missiles (and lets not forget torpedoes). A reduction in CVNs, not sure if this allows for increased SS/N/GN/BN production but perhaps the F/A XX delay isn't only due to a concern about industrial capacity for producing two 6th GEN fighters. Just my two cents....