The latest leaks wrt the US review into the AUKUS Agreement is, they will demand that, in the event of a US conflict with China (over Taiwan), the RAN’s Virgnia’s would be made available to participate in the US battle plan.
Such a case of ceding sovereign control of RAN vessels to a foreign power will probably be a step too far for the Australian people (& government) so, I would not be surprised if the British & Australian defence planners come up with a revised timeline whereby the SSN AUKUS program is accelerated so that the RAN can replace the Collins class directly with these submarines without having to acquire Virginias as a stopgap measure. This should result in significant savings in acquisition, logistics and training costs as well as being a smoother transition.
At the time that the original AUKUS timeline was being planned, the British government had no interest in early development of their replacement for the Astute class as other defence priorities had been allocated the available funds. Now that the Defence threat is perceived to be more significant and near term, the British government have announced that they are accelerating the development of SSN AUKUS so this aligns with a potential new “optimum pathway” that dispenses with the interim Virginia class and reduces the US involvement in the process. They would still be providing some technology (including the combat system) for the new submarines but wouldn’t have to free up vessels from the USN fleet.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/au...6-c8baeefe1567