We promised some analysis of the UK-Australia AUKUS submarine agreement and to describe it as a framework would be generous. It has a lot of standard legal boilerplate about tariffs and tax refunds, but the substance has many gaps. It can be cancelled with 12 months notice and seems to leave all of the power in the hands of the UK government. Next – the US seems to be becoming a less reliable ally on a daily basis. President Donald Trump is now using tariffs as a political cudgel, not just an economic one of very doubtful effectiveness. Defence talks with Australia scheduled for the next few days have been scrapped and it’s unclear if the annual AUSMIN talks will go ahead as scheduled. Our government remains supremely confident that no one should worry.
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Now that the RAN has OK’d acquiring and operating 11 frigates with a novel CMS, sensor suites and weapons, are they in a position to move on from the Virginia class sham in November when the Eldridge Colby shares his considerable wisdom? How about we ask MHI to extend the production run for the Taigei Class to include an expedited delivery of 6 boats for Australia to allow for the phasing out of the Collins class.
You are far from the first to raise that very sensible possibility.
It would be ironic if we went back to Tony Abbott’s promise of buying Japanese submarines.
Who thought the UK/Australia Submarine contract was a good deal ?. Honestly it seems to be worse than the US/Australia Submarine contract. I think it’s time the Government wakes up to the fact that the whole AUKUS thing is a colossal joke. The Paul Gibb article you refer too was startling correct and I think the ADFs obsession with the Goldilocks solution to every situation has attributed to the present disaster. Waiting for the perfect piece of equipment to arrive is great if you at least have something that will do the job in the interim. The ADF needs are Now not a Decade or two away.