A poor start from new CDF Admiral David Johnson, who told ABC News Breakfast television that every day sees an increase in ADF capability.
The opposite appears to be the case with Navy in particular going backwards, followed by the Army – and for the next 10 years the RAAF isn’t receiving anything new thanks to budget restrictions.
Spotted during Exercise Talisman Sabre – Defence Minister Richard Marles riding in an Italian NH90 helicopter, which is almost identical to the 45 Australian Taipans he ordered destroyed in September last year. Might he have had the thought “how come the Italians can support these helicopters when the Australian Army could not?”
Then it looks like there’s a coordinated push back against criticism of AUKUS Pillar One, so we pour a bit more fuel over that particular fire. Finally an anecdote about Ministerial pomposity – or rather the lack of it – from the 1980s.
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JMSDF’s more than 20 years of testing air independent propulsion (AIP) & lithium ion batteries with the Soryu class have resulted in the reduced weight – complexity & enhanced performance – safety of the Taigei class & made AIP systems unnecessary to extend underwater endurance.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2022/december/japans-advanced-lithium-ion-submarines
Yes, it’s an interesting development doing away with AIP entirely and relying on the far better performance of lithium ion batteries compared with lead acid. The ROKN is going in a similar direction, though for the time being incorporating AIP.
Perhaps if RAN chooses MHI’s upgraded Mogami for the GPF fleet, it’ll be in a position to take advantage of JMSDF policy of decommissioning subs early (20 years) could provide an emergency stop gap for WHEN not IF the 2nd hand Virginias part of pillar 1 falls over.
Stepping straight to strategy, billions of dollars earmarked for a certain system, any system, that is unproven and even essentially uncontested as deserving of such spending is madness.
AUKUS submarines may well be the apex predator of the oceans but is it strategic value for money compared to other systems? What about the rest of our Defence needs?
These two things need to be carefully examined.
Firstly is AUKUS the most cost effective means of sea control and broader national deterrence? Secondly does its cost, crewing and infrastructure required have negative implications for national defence as a whole?
Firstly, the Nuclear Submarine has not been compared to any system or platform as far as I am aware.
Why didn’t the Defence department ask serious strategic questions before planning to devote many hundreds of billions of dollars to AUKUS?
For instance, is 60 P8a Poseidon’s and 18 B21’s better or worse for our needs?
What about 28 Luerssen corvettes? Land based A2AD missiles and ISR capabilities?
Serious questions needed to be asked and were not, and now we are expected just to go along with AUKUS as an act of faith. Madness.
Secondly, In my view the submarines are destroying our Defence base as a whole. Massive sums are planned to be spent and 9 Billion has already been spent without any additional money being put into Defence. AUKUS has already become what we predicted, a massive black hole in Defence that sucks up money and people from all other programs.
I feel your frustration Kym.
Defence needs massive changes but I fear it is already too late.
Thanks as always for your thought provoking podcasts.
Thanks for the feedback. Many, many people feel the same but the government just isn’t listening.
Today David Sanger delivered probably the best answer to any AUKUS question I’ve seen you pose at the Press Club Kym, wish we had more minds of his calibre in gov & ADF
The only way out of this AUKUS black Hole is the only one Government won’t take. Cancel the Virginia buy, tell the U.S. that if they want to rotate their subs through HMAS Sterling,they need to carry some of the costs involved in the infrastructure, dump the LOTE for the Collins Class and start negotiating with Sth Korea for KSS III ( if VLS is critical) or Japan for Taigai (if VLS isn’t Critical) Get some sort of LRS Capability happening now ( HIMARS is good but CHUNMOO is cheaper and we can get it Quicker). If the RAN is so fixated on Nuclear Boats, stay with the AUKUS ( British part) and wait for it or get of their collective Backsides and start working on the design themselves or here’s a novel idea, go back to the French and ask to use the basic blueprint for the Short Fin Barracuda But this time with a Reactor. But none of that will happen because Marles is fixated on becoming PM , Albanese won’t do anything to upset China and the ADF is obsessed with anything from the U.S.
I can’t fault the logic of any of that. I’m amazed that the manifestly incompetent Marles still holds leadership aspirations – he could count on the votes of 2 fellow Victorians in Caucus – but everyone is assuming that’s why he is continuing with the idiocy of constantly trying to draw attention to himself as the deputy prime minister.
Once the US election is done with we may well find that there’s nothing left to cancel