![]() It is left with only the two-year-long refurbishments of the RAN’s Collins-class conventional submarines, one by one from 2026, when the first boat, the HMAS Collins, reaches thirty years in service.įurther work depends on progress in the joint British, US and Australian design work on the Astute-class follow-on submarine, known as the SSN-AUKUS. The biggest loser in the short term is South Australia. What better excuse than national security and the Chinese peril for breaking election promises? Expect some in Labor and the crossbenches to suggest the stage-three tax cuts and the capital gains tax discount are fairer sacrifices. ![]() Opposition leader Peter Dutton has already nobly offered to support cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and aged care to fit the bill. But once it comes to finding the money - likely to be equivalent to 0.15 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product each year - the bipartisanship will start to fray. The Coalition claims AUKUS as its own initiative, under the helmsmanship of Scott Morrison. The San Diego announcement by the three leaders has been greeted by a display of bipartisanship. Expect protests over the latter, especially from the army, which is likely to see its heavy armour cut back. The government insists that the initial $9 billion, over the next four years, won’t be felt at all: it will be met by $6 billion that would otherwise have gone to the cancelled French conventional submarines and $3 billion carved out of other defence programs. The price tag is put at somewhere between A$268 billion and A$368 billion over thirty years. This means some will have as few as fourteen years remaining of their thirty-three-year reactor life when they are transferred in 2033 and beyond. Australia is also hoping to rotate workers from Adelaide into the US and British yards to gain experience.Īmerican experts think the transferred submarines will be second-hand, probably from the third and fourth production “blocks” commissioned since 2014. With US unemployment at a record low and the yards paying somewhat miserly wages to new staff, that might be hard to achieve. Rather than building new slipways, the extra capacity will be created by introducing a nightshift at the American yards. Canberra will be putting in A$3 billion, with a bit of that going to the British submarine yard at Barrow-in-Furness. To this end, Biden is asking Congress for US$4.6 billion. ![]() That will depend on how quickly the two US shipyards building the Virginia-class can ramp up production beyond the two per year demanded by the US Navy and concerned members of the US Congress. It is unclear whether this - or the next two, three or four subs - will be new or second-hand. Only in 2033 will the RAN get its first nuclear-powered submarine, a Virginia-class boat transferred from the United States. ![]() The base will be expanded at a cost of $1 billion to accommodate them. But until 2033 or so, Australia will be protected in large part by US Navy and Royal Navy nuclear submarines patrolling out of the RAN’s Cockburn Sound base near Perth. The deal developed by the RAN’s vice-admiral Jonathan Mead and his project team, and accepted by the Albanese cabinet, is like a boy given carte blanche in a toy shop: we’ll have three to five of the US-model Virginia-class subs then eight or more of the British follow-on to the existing Astute-class, to be built in Adelaide.Īlbanese insists that Australian “sovereignty” will be paramount. The navy has a wait of a decade or more before the first nuclear-powered submarine is handed over. This week’s tri-nation announcement by Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese kicks the Royal Australian Navy’s acquisition of the subs far into the future.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |