Originally Posted by
Asturias56
Costs of long running programs of any type of military hardware are always complex and it's hard for any two people to agree. The US sometimes doesn't include all the items in the cost of a piece of kit, you have the question of how do you handle inflation, what is your base line, do you include spares? training? Things like the missiles and torpedoes?? Decommissioning costs?? Bases?...
Thanks. To add to that, add the cost of building up the industrial base in USA, UK and Australia. Also add the necessary establishment and sustainment of nuclear safety and regulatory management in Australia beyond what existed so far.
Capability vs cost should always be a consideration in Defence capability acquisitions, even when comparing apples vs oranges capabilities. If such an assessment exists for AUKUS since dumping Attack, it will unfortunately be classified and so a reason it can't be made available to the Australian public to understand the reasoning for the change of plan.