Agree.
Also words and phrases like ‘betrayal’ and ‘running away’ don’t sit well with those of us who had close relatives who fought on the western front in WW1 and the skies over France in WW2.

Put em in Exmouth. :)
RAAF Learmonth just down the road - Harold E Holt antennae farm nearby, and a coupla lovely deep channels out to deep water...

Ah yes, Kevin Rudd. A grandiose narcissist, whose idea of his own importance isn’t really supported by objective reality. And who is prone to flying into rages when things don’t go the way he wants.

There are some interesting parallels there…

Re Darwin as a base, it was attempted to set up a sub base there in WWII, but the high tides, shallow water (easily mined) and open coast line scotched the idea. There is a Japanese sub with the entire entombed crew sitting on the bottom in 157' of water close by, had been sunk by depth charge from a corvette.

I suggest the French have Kevin. They should offer him some position with a grandiose title, and lots of time so he can phone important people in Europe.
Ask Angela Merkel how much she enjoyed his phone calls.
They will soon send him back!

Kevin Rudd is priceless!
Have a look at his record on Wikipedia.
Never has so little be achieved in such a short time in power.
And yet you would think his John Curtin or Robert Menzies the way he carries on.
Julia Gillard thought he was nuts.
Why anybody listens to him is a mystery.

I don't think anyone is saying that diplomatically, That it wasn't done poorly and ham-fisted. That doesn't change the facts on the ground.

You are confusing the two. AUKUS is an upgrade from 5 eyes. What is contained in that far exceeds a nuke sub. The nuke sub is a shiny, distracting headline to what is happening and is just a small part of AUKUS

Looks like USA and France have kissed and made up...

Move along, game over...

There is an election coming. Nationalistic ranting always turns out the voters.
The French are very fair. They will sell anything to anybody.

But if you displease them and not pay enough homage then they will take your money and keep the goods.

Interesting - Chris Uhlmann just mentioned on 9 that all the Aussie head spooks are up in Washington with Morrison as well.

As I said earlier. The sub is just a shiny headline. There is some real stuff going on.

The Pundits are saying that a B-21 Raider (12 airframes) order will be announced in due course.

Yeh, that gets up my nose too - Americans are the WORST for constantly referring to the UK as 'England' - which hasn't been a sovereign state for more than 300 years, including when they won their independence, they should read their own Declaration of Independence, it doesn't mention England once but rather, refers to "... the history of the present King of Great Britain...."

Then of course, that was the founding fathers who were intelligent and educated - as the Late Gore Vidal once noted "Our Republic was created by the smartest people in the country and we haven't seen them since."

Thanks. I must've misread it, I was thinking of the Ohio Class boats which I believe are SSBNs.

I'll look for that Hugh White article. We should have upgraded the F-111 with supercruising engines - an asset tossed away because of politics. As for the B21, of course the yanks may refuse to sell it but it seems a bit incongruous as they'd be saying "You're our closest ally and we trust you with hour leading edge sub technology but not the aeroplane". We'd probably only need 12.

assuming if he was to announce it, its a given that it that they would expect to get. I personally doubt congress would allow it to be exported. I have heard there is going to be an aviation announcment but it said V-22's to replace MRH-90

Crikey - if they're trusting us with reactors etc. and the JSF - then the new jet isn't much of a step further.
And personally - I'd be holding out for the V-280 rather than the Osprey.
That thing is going to be a fantastic aircraft.

Who is 'We'?