very expected, It is still shrouded in thick mystery He asked a thousand practical questions that remain unanswered, provided that the news will be announced on Monday, March 13, duringA meeting between Joe Biden, Anthony Albanese and Roshi Sunak at Naval Base San Diego, USA.
But quoting unnamed sources, Le Financial Times et al Bloomberg already offers some clues On the nature of the nuclear powered submarines that Australia expects, As part of the Aukus Defense Pact.
As we explained at the beginning of March, the American design of the next and massive SSN (X), responsible for replacement Virginia-class submersibleswas in competition with that, more modest in size but still at the drawing board stage, of the hypothetical British SSN (R), intended to replace Inimitable buildings.
And it is Britain that must pull the chestnuts out of this atomic fire that burns under the seas. This is provocative China’s anger What Aukus Charter comes to the tackle in his pre-squareas well as France Which saw the Naval Group shipyards being denied a huge contract.
Submarine assembly
intended to replace Aging submarines of the Collins classThus, the next nuclear-powered submarine of the Australian Navy should be an assembly, a kind of “Franken Soup” monster. In reality, Ceylon BloombergIt will adopt a British design, but will consist in part of parts designed and manufactured in the United States. They can also be used for future developments of the ship.
To be clear: the Aukus agreement remains one hell of a mess, and as has long been predicted, Australia is not ready to be able to launch the eight brand-new submarines it hopes to build.
Britain loves the United States They each have serious production problems with their shipyards and SSN(X) and SSN(R) programs. The expected announcement from San Diego won’t solve them with a wave of a magic wand.
Therefore, “temporary” measures are envisaged. In particular, Bloomberg explains, the United States could base some of its existing Virginia-class submarines at bases on the Australian coast, while they wait for the best and begin training local sailors in their allies’ technologies.
Reuters, for its part, confirms that Australia Plans to acquire five of these US Virginia-class nuclear-powered shipsin order to replace the traditional diesel-powered Collins and await the arrival of the “Franken Soups”, which it is difficult to see the possibility of being built and launched before the 1940s.
