Let's be clear : Australia has no industrial basis - especially shipyards - no nuclear plants, and where are the Technical and Engineering Universities which make other countries so powerful ? it's a nation of farmers and miners, Their Navy has big recruiting problems because you get better salaries working in desert mines, than getting seasick under military discipline.
So those US subs - should they sail one day - will be crewed by USN sailors (probaby a 50/50 basis, and anyway it's the same people as I said before) And all the nuclear technology will be under US control.
They shouldn't underestimate France anger, for being treated like that.
It's not a story of losing a contract during the awarding process - it's years after, seeing your partner walking away, saying "
it's my interest in doing so " (*) thus denegating any value to his signature and words.
What has been the interest in following US in Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine ? France had no interest in those places, it was just to please Washington - losing quite a few soldiers in the process.
So in NATO, US will probably be replacing France by Latvia and Georgia, and France will get closer to Russia, as a significant part of the French population already wants. To stir up resentment against "anglo-saxons" across France, you don't need a lot - and the govenrment knows it, by the way, thus making retaliation easier to implement.
Dozens of military and big aerospace firms are already making business with Russia, and it's even the same with China (get informed, start with helicopters and navy guns) so let's just increase it, for fun now.
We were making fighter squadrons exchanges with the USSR during the Cold War, last time in 2012, stopped on US request - we can do it again (just an idea)
Anyway, it was pleasure to commit the best of our industry in making very nice blue water subs, designed to the specifications of the RAN (I remember walking along their base in Sydney, also another occasion watching their ships from the boat to Manly Beach) it would have been a great adventure, to the benefit of both sides. Because after years of rensetment (nuclear experiments from the 60s and the 70s in Polynesia) we had reached a more serene relationship - because we are somewhat partners in the Pacific, aren't we ? A couple of Rafale fighters came this summer from France mainland to Tahiti (probably to show the Navy, that the Air Force can do it quicker than the aircraft carrier...)
(*) like in the civilian world : "I have my family to support" which has been for years the excuse for the worst behaviours.
Rafales to Tahiti :
