The upper estimate of $368 billion for Australia’s acquisition of eight nuclear-powered submarines is an impossibly large number. Stacked in $100 bills, each 0.14 millimetre thick, the pile would rise to about 500 kilometres. You …
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Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet is going to be expensive. Not only will the initial production cost run into the tens of billions, but there will be significant ongoing outlays for platform sustainment, operational use and …
The issue of nuclear non-proliferation is back in the headlines, thanks to details announced last week about Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarines under the AUKUS pact. The deal, which may cost Australia upwards of $300 …
Speaking at a summit in San Diego on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a decades-long strategy to deliver the most costly defence project in Australia’s history. New details of the AUKUS defence and security pact …
The formal unveiling of the AUKUS plan is still a few days away, but we are already seeing strong signs that it will constitute a genuine trilateral partnership. If the blizzard of news reports detailing the plan is …
China’s growing power and assertiveness have been significant drivers behind developments in Australian defence policy in the past few years. The previous government’s strategic update determined that the defence force needs the capability to ‘shape’ …
Vice Admiral William Joseph Houston is a thoughtful and experienced United States naval officer, entrusted with command of perhaps the most potent US capability: its submarine fleet. Houston is also steeped in the history of …
Originally published 4 October 2022. I’ve often thought that Australia’s submarine transition is a wicked problem, perhaps one of the most wicked in the public policy arena. A wicked problem is one that is difficult …
Late in 2022—a year of war, pandemic, climatic disaster and attempted nuclear coercion—a number of news outlets published a photograph of a rare event. True, the photograph was of particular interest to only a small …
Submarines provide a unique, asymmetrical capability, giving the Australian government a range of options not offered by other platforms. Their critical importance has been emphasised in multiple defence white papers, most notably since 2009 when …
I’ve often thought that Australia’s submarine transition is a wicked problem, perhaps one of the most wicked in the public policy arena. A wicked problem is one that is difficult or even impossible to solve …
In a previous piece, we examined the broad schedule of Australia’s capability transition from conventional submarines to nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs). In planning the transition, we shouldn’t just be focusing on the point when the first …