Originally Posted by
ORAC
They aren’t short of bugs and can order more.
Measwhile the USN has a massive deficit in SSN subs which will only get worse. They are working desperately to try and increase production of the Virginia class from 2 to 3 a year and are looking at ordering an extra 10 block V/VI at the expense of pushing the building of the SSNX Seawolf replacement hunter-killer to the right.
Not saying it can’t be done - but it would be a very hard sell in Congress. More chance of getting few forward based in Australia with some exchange crew to get used to working with nuclear subs - and the locals used to them.
Yeah the US just magicing up 2 extra subs from somewhere was never going to happen, more likely for me if they do decide to go virginia, which I think is not going to happen that 2-4 of early block 1 from hawaii will be foward deployed to somewhere in australia. There will be a mixed RAN / USN crew for them
Also bill in the US for RAN personal to access US training facilites
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/20...ining-program/