Originally Posted by
ORAC
One reason to sign multinational treaties to build aircraft - such as Tornado, Typhoon and Tempest - is that they make it incredibly hard to cancel politically, and unlikely to be financially worthwhile once penal clauses due to the cost the remaining partners is taken into account.
The same holds true for SSN-AUKUS, except the penalty clauses and costs would be far higher due to the nuclear element….
I totally agree. It would be very difficult for a future British government to cancel the AUKUS SSN because of the multinational implications. This deal is a win-win in that Australia gets to build SSN’s designed to the latest specs (with the desired US combat system) and Britain gets to spread the development costs of its next generation SSN over a much larger fleet. I think that those people involved in the planning and negotiation of these deals have done a great job and have achieved the best possible outcome.