Originally Posted by
Gnadenburg
I’m not a fan of rigid partisan politics so no, I’m not a disgruntled Liberal voter. I have no link or proof though none I know from Labor’s left want nuclear submarines. The Greens have stated as much.
Dutton’s article in The Australian read more like a concerned Australian reading the tea leaves of Labor faction-fighting and a bungled Defence bureaucracy. If we need nuclear submarines we need them sooner rather than later. The two ASAP option was a logical ambition to introduce the capability at its earliest and avoid a capability gap in a convincing manner.
I don’t trust Marles and am concerned of where the roots of the CCP political influence may lie. He just has to be another insipid Defence Minister and the CCP has won another battle in the Pacific without a shot.
So you just threw Labor in for fun and do the Greens want any submarine? Yet you say Marles is a traitor to Australia and is a puppet loyal to China. I think you should be posting this on the 'Jet Blast' board here. It has only a thin disguise to military procurement. The internet has Maries as pro-US and a China hawk. I don't think he can be both, but it does raise the question. Do we want a hawk as a defence minister?
Now back to AUKUS. Dutton was talking of leasing subs as an interim filler. There won't be a purchase yet, we haven't even decided what one to get. Going by the US figures. You need 3.5 nuke submarines, to keep one in the water. The other 2.5 are in a maintenance cycle. We definitely won't be buying and running 3 classes of submarines, Where 2 Virginia's doesn't keep one in the water. As well as the Collins we retire from their aprox 22 year refit and service timeline from 2026. That takes us nearly to 2050 for the last sub, if we don't do another life extension. On some or all, if the hulls can handle it.
There is also the RAN that have said they can gap-fill a possible Collins shortfall, with other 'weapon systems'. Said in parliament when they cancelled the Skyguardian.