THE National Party’s Barnaby Joyce weighed in heavily on the present state of the three-party AUKUS defence contract last month, suggesting that a contingency plan is needed as a fallback in case present production levels fail to deliver these highly desirable submarines for our defence needs.
As we know, the USA under President Trump is now looking at this contract in order to make sure that it is in line with his “America First” attitude.
This $368 billion defence pact between the USA, the UK and Australia is a two-staged agreement, part one of which is to see Australia obtain eight American designed nuclear Virginia Class submarines.
Australia’s first three will be secondhand ones already in service with the US Navy.
The rest will be newly built, with some set to be built near Adelaide.
The issue seems to be the present rate of construction, with two submarines being built each year.
This appears to be less than the USA requires for its own purposes, raising the question of how the remaining eight for Australia can be delivered over time.
Australia has already paid out $800 million to the USA in order to increase its manufacturing ability, to possibly increase the rate of completion to 2.5 subs per year.
Barnaby Joyce’s suggestion follows statements from previous PM Malcolm Turnbull that the AUKUS agreement can’t be satisfied and should be cancelled forthwith in order to avert some of the financial losses that have already occurred, should the agreement fall apart.
So, what are the possible alternative plans available to Australia should this happen?
The other players in the nuclear sub manufacturing game includes France and our previous contact with this nation didn’t end too well.
Then there is Japan and Germany, both are highly regarded as quality manufacturing nations.
Obviously, the UK is already heavily committed so not a viable alternative.
The question is: should we be talking with these manufacturers, starting the ball rolling in case it becomes obvious that AUKUS can’t proceed as planned?
The American Virginia Class submarine is seen as by far the best product and its association with the UK has produced the best propulsion system for submarines, but the question remains, will we ever get our subs?
If not, then what are we doing about it?
By John BLACKBOURN
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