What a tangle of unkempt hair AUKUS is turning out to be. The French make good boats, so do the Germans (curiously they have a bit of history in that field) as do the Swedes.
The modern AIP boat is a capable machine and lacks only the ability to sortie to the other side of the planet without replenishment.
Exactly why does AUS, the GBR etc need to be running sorties across the globe? There be dragons aplenty within the range of all of the other options, and they all give a cost effective outcome that allows for the one thing that is lost with AUKUS's concentration on NPPP, you can get about 6-8 AIP boats for the same cost as one new atomic powered tub.
The aggression by Russia against its neighbours has made the point that being able to innovate and meet a threat is an important skill, and the AUKUS boats seem to be rather last century in their strategic application, would think that we are able to come up with better solutions, in shorter time frames, with greater capability, and with lower risk.