The newswire is reporting ‘that Australia is set to purchase five Virginia class nuclear powered submarines over the next decade as part of the AUKUS agreement.’
I don’t see how.
The US production line can’t keep up up with their own demand for Virginia class boats. Unless we just tip a mountain of money into the US shipyards to start up a new production line, we’re not getting five Virginia’s.
Also, why would Rishi Sunak fly all the way to California to stand next to Biden and Albo just to get massively pantsed?
Anyway. I have thoughts. Many many many thoughts about the nukes. I’m not much freaked out by the fact they’ll take decades to get here. China will be in demographic and economic decline, if not outright collapse by the time those subs are launched. There’s a school of thought that argues the CCP regime will be waaaay more dangerous under those circumstances than they are now.
But we live in the now. They’re not gonna help much with that.
Update.
The Smage is reporting that Albo’s putting down the plastic for five Virginia’s, but then Sunak gets to build a whole new class of sub, half kangaroo, half British lion. Sounds even crazier.
No, no. You misread it John. It said the submarines are going to be made by 7 nude spear-powered virgins in a TAFE class. That’s all the budget can afford.
I've been writing for a while over on Interstellar that our procurement system is hopelessly dysfunctional and needs to be fixed yesterday. Billions are spent either on useless toys or boondoggles designed to bring home the bacon for politicians. We can't afford this bullshit anymore, and it's going to hit us between the eyes like a two-by-four.
I need to read a bit more, but isn't the Brit design still only in the design phase and not yet an actual boat? The Virginia class is the ducks nuts when it comes to nuke boats, and the force projection it brings is superior. Yes, yes concerns about 'integration' into the US systems, but I'm willing to bet London to a brick that the 'source' behind this purchase of 5 boats from the US is someone in Dutton's office stirring up shit. The great potato himself was in the media making claims that he knew the answer to the AUKUS mystery. Bollocks. Connecticut and Virginia can't make them fast enough for their own demand, let alone give us 5.
The best outcome here is the Osborne shipyards resourcing up hard to manufacture these bad boys in SA, and the reactors being shipped as a plug in unit from the states. The bigger challenge however will be recruitment and training of enough sailors to crew these beasts.
Crazier, yes. Trying to do an on-the-fly custom design was why the French option was taking so long and costing so much. You'd have to ask yourself whether the bozos in charge didn't learn anything from the experience, except for the nagging suspicion that they really like it to be that way. It's not their money, or time.
Eh it’s only 15 billion or so. Biden is handing out weapons and our money like candy. Good to be a defense contractor nowadays. Everybody will be arming up for yrs in this new Cold War.
Are half a dozen subs going to make that much difference? There's quite a bit of coastline to cover, and I'm pretty sure, economic decline or not, that China has/will have more than that, and not just one or two more, twenty or thirty years more.
And why the fuck does it take so long to build one?
This is all such a frustrating clustfuck of international handjobs that it makes my teeth itch.
Starting from... if we wanted nuke subs so bad why not just.. stop converting the french nuke sub into a diesel one??
No, no. You misread it John. It said the submarines are going to be made by 7 nude spear-powered virgins in a TAFE class. That’s all the budget can afford.
I've been writing for a while over on Interstellar that our procurement system is hopelessly dysfunctional and needs to be fixed yesterday. Billions are spent either on useless toys or boondoggles designed to bring home the bacon for politicians. We can't afford this bullshit anymore, and it's going to hit us between the eyes like a two-by-four.
I need to read a bit more, but isn't the Brit design still only in the design phase and not yet an actual boat? The Virginia class is the ducks nuts when it comes to nuke boats, and the force projection it brings is superior. Yes, yes concerns about 'integration' into the US systems, but I'm willing to bet London to a brick that the 'source' behind this purchase of 5 boats from the US is someone in Dutton's office stirring up shit. The great potato himself was in the media making claims that he knew the answer to the AUKUS mystery. Bollocks. Connecticut and Virginia can't make them fast enough for their own demand, let alone give us 5.
The best outcome here is the Osborne shipyards resourcing up hard to manufacture these bad boys in SA, and the reactors being shipped as a plug in unit from the states. The bigger challenge however will be recruitment and training of enough sailors to crew these beasts.
China will be more dangerous, but soldiers so old they need walkers and wheel-chairs to get around will not be.
Crazier, yes. Trying to do an on-the-fly custom design was why the French option was taking so long and costing so much. You'd have to ask yourself whether the bozos in charge didn't learn anything from the experience, except for the nagging suspicion that they really like it to be that way. It's not their money, or time.
Eh it’s only 15 billion or so. Biden is handing out weapons and our money like candy. Good to be a defense contractor nowadays. Everybody will be arming up for yrs in this new Cold War.
Probs relying on top notch intel from PDuddy.
Are half a dozen subs going to make that much difference? There's quite a bit of coastline to cover, and I'm pretty sure, economic decline or not, that China has/will have more than that, and not just one or two more, twenty or thirty years more.
And why the fuck does it take so long to build one?