Honestly still surprised we haven't cancelled the open bases agreement with the french.

If they make a base in Pt. Hedland, then please, carry on...:E

"I haven’t heard much about is how the US and UK were convinced to hand over the Crown Jewels of submarine technology"

A great deal is secret of course but I'm pretty sure the Russians have access to most of it anyway - the real challenge is BUILDING the boats according to the spec.......

Looking further hard to see if its was actually signed or still under negoiation. If it was under negoiation its a dead duck


That was a news report from the 10th a few days before aukus

French helicopters are fighting wars all over the world, looks like the ozzie armed forces are not up to the job ! I wonder how would you deal with nuke subs ?

Why should France need any bases in Australia ? France has territories in all oceans on earth, why do we need anything from you ?

I suspect balboa is recceguy with another posting name.
Ignore him and he will just go away. Replying to his drivel just keeps giving him oxygen.

The French will eventually need close alignment in the Pacific to counter China. Their EEZ's around their territories will at a convenient stage, be targeted by China. It's a pity Australia and France couldn't work through their differences: one wanted a submarine capability and the other a "relationship" with bottomless finance to provide shipyard jobs in Brittany.


BTW. Germany is looking to ditch their Tiger helicopters too. That's if they can get past the Franco-German politics and buy American. Or perhaps they'd prefer not to upset France and have 8 of 50 Tigers available at any time?

Slightly OT but with australia whipping out its cheque book recently, assuming the brazilian government would let if go we should buy embraer. For about 4.5 billion AUD seems an interesting buy, the E-jets are quite popular in australia, the 390 seems an interesting possible replacement for the hercs. The govt recently funded telstra to buy the pacific telecom network, maybe someone could buy embraer with financial assistance from the government

You need Australia so you have a refueling point to get to your Pacific territories, we see your military pass through whenever they are in transit.

PS: you going to turn up at Pitch Black 2022?

And France needs to maintain a presence in the Pacific exactly why ?
Fond memories of a long distant past ?
Take away the Force de Frappe and France is only a middle power with no power projection capability.
Why do they pretend they are are a tier 1 power ? What is the strategic justification?
We should have gone with the Soryu class.
The French contract was always a dumb idea.

Betting the invitation is going to be lost in the mail

I'm happy to tease the croaking frogs. They don't realise that they live in a little pond and think they are a world power.
Even though France needs Australian bases, more than Australia needs France. Military to military alliances don't work like that and will be fine at the end of the day. These 2 clowns, playing for re-election early next year. Will sooner or later be out of office. I'll be surprised if Rafales weren't at Pitch Black next year.

TBM the post was not about win or loose. It was about people stating they just rolled up and went back to cheese and wine. Same with Italy and the cracks about 8 reverse gears and one forward. As in any defence force there are some very brave people and some brave people. When we have had centuries of war that flow into millennium, perhaps our cultural attitude towards war may be far more pragmatic.

In respect to balboa1968, please do not scare him off. I haven't laughed so hard for a long time. I can not think of anything more funny than an arrogant ignoramus . The arrogance of a Frenchman (we are the best lovers, drinkers, smokers, fighters, viva la France) combined with the ignorance of an American (we won WW1, WW11, and have saved the world and continue to do so) is a comic combination that is unbeatable.

"Take away the Force de Frappe and France is only a middle power with no power projection capability."

Could say much the same about one of the other AUSUS partners I guess - but the French would point out they actually own their missiles - they don't rent them by the hour

lol
Say whatever you want about French loosing wars. Doesn't matter who helped or not along the way, fact is France is still called France, still French speaking with its French culture, food, etc...

Grow some balls, stop complaining and just do like them:
Have your own aviation, missile, boat, submarine industries so you can keep your "Independence" and choose whatever weird local options you want to add to your war toys.

Oops... Sorry, you cannot! But you will still going to blame the French because it's fashionable :p

We do like to have Tier 1 toys though, unlike France. We can also keep an aircraft in the air. After a French Google, your aircraft availability is in the 50% range. Even Russia does better than that. You guys still can't get an engine to work.

Haute intensité : L'aviation de combat française présente des fragilités qui peinent à se réduire - Zone Militaire
“Taking into account the issues related to the engine and the level of operational support [NSO], the operational technical availability [DTO] of the Rafale [air and navy] reached 55.8% in the first half of 2021. The Mirage D availability, 32.4%

The french ambassador addressed the national press club. Tried to watch it but after 20 minutes of whinning and lieing about the sub deal just turned it off


Kept going on about how france was giving australia "national secrets" about it nuclear subs. Also omitted they are submitting the same design to india P-75i, so giving them to india as well

They were just designing the physical sub, The US were providing the 'secret' electronics and weapons.

Yep they were providing the hull which they are also trying to provide to india, they were going to provide the propulsion which logic says its just going to be upgraded tech from the scorpenes, which are currently used or on order by 6 countries.