CN Australia to get nuclear-powered submarines, will scrap $90b program to build French-designed subs - A hole in the ocean you throw money into

link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09...-biden-australia-nuclear-submarines/100465628​

archive: http://archive.today/dvj6w

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Australia to get nuclear-powered submarines, will scrap $90b program to build French-designed subs​

By defence correspondent Andrew Greene, political editor Andrew Probyn and foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic

Posted 1 hours ago, updated 41 minutes ago

The controversial plan to build French-designed submarines in Australia will be scrapped. (Supplied: DCNS)

Australia's next submarine fleet will be nuclear-powered under an audacious plan that will see a controversial $90 billion program to build up to 12 French-designed submarines scrapped.

Key points:​

• Joe Biden is expected to make an announcement at 7:00am AEST
• The ABC understands the Prime Minister convened a National Security Committee of Cabinet yesterday
• It's expected that there will be an increased presence of American nuclear subs in the region

The ABC understands Australia will use American and British technology to configure its next submarine fleet in a bid to replace its existing Collins class subs with a boat more suitable to the deteriorating strategic environment.

Australia, the United States and Britain are expected to jointly announce a new trilateral security partnership on Thursday, with a focus on aligning technology and regional challenges.

But Australia's embrace of nuclear-powered submarines will have its political and technological challenges, given there is no domestic nuclear industry.

The new three-nation security pact – called AUKUS – will be seen by China as a bid to counter its regional influence, especially in the contested South China Sea.

The nuclear submarines would likely be based in WA.

In April 2016 Australia awarded French contractor DCNS the main contract to design and build its next generation of submarines to replace its current fleet of six Collins-class vessels. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty)

In 2017, the Turnbull government announced French company Naval Group (then known as DCNS) had been selected for this country's largest-ever defence contract, to design and build "regionally superior" conventional submarines.

The ABC understands Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened a National Security Committee of Cabinet on Tuesday ahead of coordinated announcements in Washington and London.

Cabinet ministers were given special COVID exemptions to travel to Canberra for the top-secret discussions.

In a highly unusual step, the Prime Minister also invited Labor leader Anthony Albanese and three of his senior shadow ministers to be briefed on the plan.

American media reports say US President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver "brief remarks about a national security initiative" on Wednesday afternoon in Washington local time.

A well-placed military source has told the ABC the Defence Department's general manager of submarines, Greg Sammut, has called an urgent "clear lower decks" meeting for tomorrow morning to discuss the dramatic development.

Another senior official said "top secret" briefings have been arranged at the Defence Department on Thursday.

Inside military circles there is also speculation that the transition to a new nuclear submarine program could initially be overseen by Retired US Vice Admiral William Hilarides, who chairs the federal government's Naval Shipbuilding Expert Advisory Panel.

Government sources say Mr Morrison tried unsuccessfully to line up a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, but it has now been instead scheduled for Thursday.

The ABC has been told that news of Australia's decision was instead delivered to Paris by the secretary of the Defence Department Greg Moriarty.
Allied naval presence is expected to increase north of Australia — including in the contested South China Sea — as part of a coordinated tri-continental push against Beijing territorial aggression.

Australia, the United States and Britain are expected to reorient their submarine and warship fleets to counter China's increasing regional presence.

Regional diplomatic missions across Canberra are expecting to be briefed on the announcement on Thursday afternoon.

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A brief history on the Attack-class subs:

- DCNS won the contract, their design was to convert their nuclear submarine design 'Barracuda' to diesel-electric
- The Australian Government spent AUD 90+ Billion since 2017 (4 years) and none of the subs have even started construction
- Hold-ups were caused by disputes between the Australian contractors and shipyards building it and DCNS, and issues with the Dept Defence and DCNS
- Now the government wants to scrap the program and build nuclear subs. We still ship our nuclear waste to France, so they haven't completely lost out.

In short, we wasted 90 Billion when we could have just gone with the original nuclear sub's design and tweaked it.

Weirdly enough, the article was already archived right as it was published.​

 

[Richardface]

The frogs used basic deception to get us into that fucked up procurement contract so they can fuck themselves with any criticism

Good decision, but we should be buying Yasen class subs so we can drown our New Zealand enemies in cruise missiles

 

[Iceland Heavy]

Funny thing; the Brits home-built some Apaches that didn't do so well, so they're scrapping those and ordering the US built ones instead.



They've gone all in on US land support gear, it seems. Apaches, going with Abrams tanks, etc.


How the fuck are they going to stop them? They're Virginia class nuke boats, they could sneak into a major port and surface right at quayside before the New Zealanders could stop them. I mean, what are they going to do, have an angry haka on the dock and yell "ooga ooga" at the sub?

In practicality that's probably pretty much what they'd do, throw a shitfit if one of them tries to dock at an NZ port. Not like they have the coverage to go harassing subs in their waters if some are emitting that scary radiation.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Funny thing; the Brits home-built some Apaches that didn't do so well, so they're scrapping those and ordering the US built ones instead.

I don't think they're being scrapped because of the intitial issues they had (given how long ago that was, and how well they've performed since), but because the airframes are worn out and the new Guardian variant is superior anyway.

They've gone all in on US land support gear, it seems. Apaches, going with Abrams tanks, etc.

Honestly for a country like Aus that doesn't have the capacity to build all their shit from scratch it's not a bad deal. Compatability and familiarization with their biggest ally, not to mention the opportunity to piggy back on further upgrades is a decent deal.

They're Virginia class nuke boats, they could sneak into a major port and surface right at quayside before the New Zealanders could stop them

They wouldn't even need to sneak in underwater. They could cruise in on the surface and the kiwis couldn't do shit on account of the fact their entire navy is comprised of like 3 dinghies and an old bath tub.

 

[Sex Cannon Lupa]

So the US is giving precious secrets to a Chinese colony that also happens to be the Great Reset's laboratory for subjugating unruly populaces. Interesting.

 

[Pixy]

So the US is giving precious secrets to a Chinese colony that also happens to be the Great Reset's laboratory for subjugating unruly populaces. Interesting.

The Yanks are learning how to pacify populations of similarly-developed countries. Decades tied up in failing to do so in the M.E calls for further testing on unwilling peoples to figure out how to get them to comply.

 

[theshep]

So Biden's basically just deciding on giving China better nuke sub tech at this point

Actually, it sounds like this deal has been in the works for much longer. Our PM mentioned and thanked our previous Defence Minister (Linda Reynolds) for the work she did on this. She left that role in March. I find it hard to believe that something as big as this happened between Biden's inauguration and the 30th March.

 

[Animewasamistake]

I am 99% sure this was a trump proposal that survived. anyway i am beyond happy we are getting some subs that actually work and not some crappy french crap

 

[Pixy]

I am 99% sure this was a trump proposal that survived. anyway i am beyond happy we are getting some subs that actually work and not some crappy french crap

Looking at further reports from the baguette side of things, it's not so much us ditching the French that has them seething at us, rather than it is how we told them they were dumped through a press conference. The deal (for the subs and that new fancy security pact) was apparently sealed at a G7 summit meeting behind closed doors with Johnson and Biden, where Scummo separately told Macron that Australia was reportedly still 'considering its options' with regards to the sub program, and said nothing about this new 'indo-pacific security pact'.

Evidently, that was not the case, hence why they're calling it a "stab in the back." I doubt there'd be so much vitriol if he'd just told them upfront that the Sub program was going to be cancelled, rather than playing coy. Alongside excluding the Frenchies, who have much more significant Pacific interests than the Bongs, from that Pacific security pact. It's a double whammy of un-Australian politicking.

The French companies are going to get paid as part of the contract terms with the government, but Scummo and co. haven't said much on what will happen to Australians who were working on the project or if they'll be compensated. I have my doubts it will have a higher degree of Aussie involvement than the existing Submarine disaster was supposed to have on paper (there were disputes over how much Aussie effort was actually being used prior to cancellation).

What we're left with is Aussie contractors and companies who invested a decent amount of capital in preparations for working on the subs, some even moving to France as part of their work on the French sub project, having just discovered this morning that they're left holding the bag.

 

[Meat Target]

Hold me, frens. The idea of shitfaced bogans handling fissile material terrifies me.

 

[Sped Xing]

Brillitant idea to replace useless subs with other useless subs...

Nuclear powered Subs are only good if they are armed with nukes.

They had 3 good Subs in their original competition. all 3 are superior to what they bought now and could have already been delivered.

Nuclear subs and border patrol agents are all the US actually needs. We could be saving SO much money.

 

[Stoneheart]

Nuclear subs and border patrol agents are all the US actually needs. We could be saving SO much money.

For the Us they make sense. sneak up on your enemies from the deep sea and launch nukes if they tried to invade Us mainland.

but they are useless for fighting anything but Cargoships--

 

[Sped Xing]

For the Us they make sense. sneak up on your enemies from the deep sea and launch nukes if they tried to invade Us mainland.

but they are useless for fighting anything but Cargoships--

Oh, no, I meant Boomers, for sure. Attack subs are gay and dumb.

Screaming "I'll kill every last one of you!" and being a hall monitor is all it actually takes to defend America. All the rest of our military exists purely to make Congressmen's dicks feel bigger.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Get in here lads, this shitshow isn't over yet.

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/france...alia-to-protest-bidens-submarine-deal.100398/