Gupperduck
"Let’s not pretend that new – or old – submarines are what AUKUS is really about"
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/let-s-not-pretend-that-new-or-old-submarines-are-what-aukus-is-really-about-20260605-p604ck.html
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We have committed at least $8 billion to upgrade wharves, maintenance facilities and logistics infrastructure near Fremantle to create Submarine Rotation Force-West. …, it is a forward-operational deployment of the US Navy, …, not a down payment on Australia getting its own … submarines. …The boats may never arrive, but SRF-W will remain as a forward-operational deployment of the US Navy
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Let’s not pretend that new – or old – submarines are what AUKUS is really about

Some say Australia’s new deal is akin to forfeiting a deposit on a new Renault to get a top-of-the-range Tesla, but receiving a second-hand model with 200,000 kilometres on the clock.

The Sydney Morning Herald
Jun 6 at 8:25pmWeb
Show threadGupperduck6d ago
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… By the end of the next decade, there are expected to be 25 allied nuclear-powered attack submarines on permanent or rotational deployment in Fremantle, Guam and Hawaii. They give the US the potential, should President Donald Trump or his successors decide, to block and cripple China’s energy imports, which must pass through the choke point that is the Strait of Malacca after making the long transit across the Indian Ocean. …
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Show threadGupperduck6d ago

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Australians may well support the real objective, and the government should explain AUKUS in those terms. If we really want to go there, a good second-hand car works just as well as a new one.

Professor Clinton Fernandes is part of University of NSW’s Future Operations Research Group which analyses the threats, risks and opportunities that military forces will face in the future. He is a former intelligence officer in the Australian Army. His latest book is …