Stephen Lovegrove appointed to advise on the AUKUS agreement; Blair "Paddy" Mayne and the VC that wasn't; and NATO Supreme Commander warns of reducing US troop numbers in Europe
With everything going on ditching the French Subs for the American submarines seems to be the most catastrophic decision of the Morrison years (stupidly backed by Labor in their own Ming Vase strategy years) as the delivery of even one Virginia Class Submarine is looking less and less likely by the day. Albo then doubling down on that mistake by signing AUKUS when a Trump reelection looked at least plausible has only compounded the error, especially as AUKUS becoming AUK at some stage, especially if Vance succeeds Trump looks like an outcome that is the most likely
We just paid our first $3 Billion instalment even though it is right there in the contract that we only get a Sub if the Americans have enough to meet their needs at the time and everyone knows there is zero chance the Americans will have a spare submarine in 2034
With everything going on ditching the French Subs for the American submarines seems to be the most catastrophic decision of the Morrison years (stupidly backed by Labor in their own Ming Vase strategy years) as the delivery of even one Virginia Class Submarine is looking less and less likely by the day. Albo then doubling down on that mistake by signing AUKUS when a Trump reelection looked at least plausible has only compounded the error, especially as AUKUS becoming AUK at some stage, especially if Vance succeeds Trump looks like an outcome that is the most likely
There are certainly a lot of potential hazards for Australia. Real danger of a significant capability gap.
We just paid our first $3 Billion instalment even though it is right there in the contract that we only get a Sub if the Americans have enough to meet their needs at the time and everyone knows there is zero chance the Americans will have a spare submarine in 2034