Congratulations are due to “that fella from down under” for the establishment of AUKUS. The purchase and building of nuclear-powered subs for the Royal Australian Navy will be the best thing to happen to that service since the formation of the RAN based around its flagship the 12’ gun battle cruiser HMAS Australia in 1911.
The fact that the Chinese Government, the Greens and the usual local variants of Lenin’s (or should it be Xi’s) useful idiots have come out hysterically against the AUKUS announcement just gives proof of the correctness of the decision. I detect the sure hand of Peter Dutton (who is shaping up as one of our strongest ministers of defence ever) behind this as well.
I am not going to regurgitate the facts on how much more powerful nuclear subs are than conventional ones as that has been amply covered by all our major newspapers, nor will I dwell on the obvious impetus this gives to the very real need for Australia to now embrace, as every other G20 country has, nuclear power for civilian use (see my article in this week’s print edition).
This decision is not dependent on Australia having a civilian nuclear industry although people forget we have had the Lucas Heights facility happily and safely operating for over 50 years now. Suffice to say, this historic decision will have immediate effect in giving us immediate access to the most modern western missile, cyber and drone technology, even though the first subs may not be operational until 2040. The prospect of further US troop deployments to Australia is welcomed as well. All this makes us safer. All this helps counter an aggressive China under President Xi. All this may help other members of the CCP politburo to start to question Xi’s aggressive expansionist plans.
It is a good decision for Australian industry as well, including the surprisingly large local ACT defence industry. It will help us here in Canberra directly.
As the old saying goes “if you want peace, prepare for war”, and you can have the best health, social security and education systems in the world but they are useless if you can’t defend yourself.
There are, of course, a number of questions to be asked.
Can we have subs earlier? The answer is yes. As Dutton has alluded to, we can lease one or two within the next few years. The obvious ones would be the US Virginia class. The US Navy will have 38 operational by about 2026. We should in my view buy two or three in the next few years off the shelf. Indeed, there is a lot to be said for just buying the planned eight off the shelf. If we build some or all of them in Adelaide, we will need to close the Chinese consulate there as its main purpose is to spy on our military industry in Adelaide and the last thing we want is for the Chinese to steal this crucial technology entrusted to us by our allies.
The poor old British are not in a position to lease or sell us anything. They have five Astute class (an excellent boat by the way) operational and will build two more. They have four missile subs (nukes), the Vanguard class, and are slowly building their replacements, the Dreadnought class. Their ship building industry is much, much smaller than the US and due to successive cuts to the once formidable British Defence forces, the RN, RAF and British Army are now not much bigger than the ADF. Shame on you David Cameron and you too, Boris, for your recent cuts. The British are, however, developing some innovative missile and laser technology which is of use to us, but they can’t really be a serious contender for a new sub for the RAN. They are even behind on their new F26 frigate program which we are getting from them as well. So, it’s the Virginia class as the best option. Bottom line is, we can’t wait 20 years.
There may be other possible options like getting an old recently decommissioned or about to be decommissioned Trafalgar class sub from the British or a similar one from the French or an old US Los Angeles Class boat from the US to learn on. Buying or leasing a Virginia class boat is, however, a much better option in my view.
That brings me to the French. The short fin Baracuda was never going to work and France will be fully compensated by us for the cancellation. They will get over it. It’s not like the Battle of Mers el Kebir in July 1940 (when the British sank or disabled four French capital ships to prevent them getting into Nazi hands) and the French are not lily white; they reneged in September 1939 on their contract to immediately come to Poland’s aid when Germany invaded Poland and sat on their hands in the Maginot line instead; and Australian troops did save their bacon in April 1918.
Still, I wonder if there is some way we could include them in this new alliance. After all, their armed forces are bigger than the UK’s. We could also call the new alliance FAUKUS which has certain ring to it.
