The thought of Australian nuclear submarines, or even parts of them being built in Australia is very concerning.
I hope they are not.
After a decade living and working here my observation is that compared to Britain, where I have also lived and worked, and the US which I have visited frequently for work, in general Australian industry unduly struggles to organise itself and function optimally.
It is slow-moving, unnecessarily bureaucratic, lacking in imagination and agility, small-minded and inwardly focused compared to it's counterparts in both of those AUKUS nations.
Some might say the same could be said of Electric Boat or BAE... but they have track records and established facilities with experience building nuclear boats.
Australia just cannot move quickly - and it has no sense of urgency.
Hal Brands makes a
that as a country facing future economic and demographic stagnation and decline, China is dangerous right now and for the next 5-10 years.
I'm not even confident Australia will be able to make the obvious move to procure long range missiles as quickly as it needs to - or to build or acquire UUVs and XLUUVs to fill the gap between now and the arrival of the SSNs.
Dangerous times indeed.