Just online after the day at work & scanning thru the news feeds here in the UK, THIS turned up (video link is also included)...
Comments on nuclear submarine choice 'irresponsible' ahead of AUKUS announcement -defence minister
ABC News (AU) - Comments...
Having read the comments & watched the video, I'd appreciate the thoughts of others on the comments.
I can understand the liberals fears, but yeh, I think things have moved on so I am surprised this has resurfaced. It appears they are trying to push a higher capability option perception. That the US is a much more capable and much better platform.
Also in Australia I don't think there is a huge preference for American or UK submarines. What ever the Navy thinks it can operate. There is probably more fear about a US submarine being built overseas, but I don't think in fact that is true.
If its SSNR and has UK and US backing, then I think people can see that working with acceptable risk, particularly if the SSNR is a scaled Dreadnought class.
I think most people can see we have a closer and more peer based relationship with the UK and there are UK companies in Australia, and plenty of poms in Australia.
The US is more capable, but we aren't peers, there aren't millions of US citizens in Australia. There are few American companies, and none own or operate shipyards. The Americans have never seemed particularly interested in operating ship yards here. That isn't something they are interested in.
That said there is a real urgency to upsize defence in Australia. Bombers, destroyers with 96+ VLS, heck even SSGNs are popping up for discussion and even serious consideration. There are people whispering that we don't just need SSNs, but SSBNs, and not just any old SSBNs, the new American ones, because a regular old SSBN isn't enough capability. We don't need just fighters, we need fighters capable of orbital battles in space. Perhaps a space battleship..
Its not just about submarines. The Liberals will paint every defence acquisition under labor as being the "carebear" safety low capability version. They want to be seen as the ones big on defence.
Also governments, all type have been terrible about communicating what is going on. There are legitmate concerns about Astute, mostly because the UK can't build them or their reactors anymore and PWR2 has known issues. But of course, this may not what is being concidered at all when we say Astute, most people speculate its an Astute with an American reactor.
The political and strategic ramifications of the AUKUS pact involving the US, UK and Australia continue to reverberate, but the details of how Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) have often been overlooked. There are ...
www.aspistrategist.org.au
Australians can see the global shift happening. We can see a lot of chaos in the US, now and in the future. We can see what is happening in Ukraine, and it feels immediate, Australia has lots of migrants from after WWII from all over the continent and after the fall of the iron curtain. We can see the huge rise of China, probably more than any other western nation, Australia has a lot of Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China migrants and we do huge, huge trade with China. China has already tried to economic squish Australia. Watching a small middle power nation like Ukraine get pounded the crap out of it while everyone watches, hits hard here. Defence is a high priority in Australia. It isn't a second class priority anymore.
While Labor and Liberal broadly agree on concepts, I expect them to furiously fight and defence decisions. It will be an election issue.
