Today, PM Anthony Albanese and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskus have announced the initial spend of $3.9 billion out of a total investment of $30 billion to build nuclear-powered submarines at Osborn. This is for a state-of-the-art production hall adjacent to existing infrastructure at the yard.
Australia – and the RAN – have stated repeatedly that the plan is to operate a maximum of eight SSNs. The first part of the plan is to buy up to five Virginia class submarines from the United States – the first two of them being about 15 years old – and with deliveries starting in the early to mid 2030s.
If the US part of the deal goes through, that means that the $30 billion Osborn facility will be building a maximum of three British-designed SSN AUKUS boats. Even then, each submarine will only be partially constructed in Australia because the central reactor compartment involving some of the most complex engineering work will be fully imported from the UK.
Should the US not be in a position to sell five Virginia class submarines to us, why has Australia given billions of dollars to their submarine industry base, with more to go? Why are there no refund clauses for these gigantic cash handouts – with the UK also being a recipient of a similar amount of cash.
In the longer term, the Virginia subs will need to be replaced – everything runs out eventually – but the proposed SSN AUKUS, if it ever eventuates, will be a 10,000 tonne behemoth unsuited for the shallow conditions that are found in many parts of our region. Crewing them will also be a major headache – and should they ever eventuate they will have been overtaken by huge numbers of uncrewed AI-enabled submersibles.
On the face of it, the announcement about the Osborn yard investment looks like a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. Surely the time has come for an independent review into the entire AUKUS Pillar One deal.
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Apart from APDR this Osborne buy seats and votes in South Australia submarine splurge is being reported uncritically in the mainstream and even specialist media.
Like “full steam ahead” journalists are bizarrely focussing on humungous costs as a good thing for “well paid jobs”.
I think Ministers of the Labor Government and ineffectual Opposition probably see retirement sinecures for themselves from the multi-decade AUKUS submarine program.