Australia's AUKUS Gift Going to Columbia SSBN Construction

More than 2/3s of America's submarine building effort is going to America's highest priority Columbia-class nuclear missile submarines. [1]

Australia has no say on where our A$800 million per year gift to US submarine builders (GDEB and HII) goes.

It is highly likely most of our A$800 million gift is going to Columbia nuclear missile submarine construction [2] rather than to America's lower priority, hence underfunded Virginia-class submarine construction [3].

[1]  https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/06/us-gov-giving-columbia-subs-priority.html

[2]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia-class_submarine#Boats_in_class

[3]  Peter Briggs, March 11, 2025, at https://warontherocks.com/2025/03/when-it-comes-to-submarines-australia-is-going-to-be-left-high-and-dry/#:~:text=The%20building%20effort%20required%20for%20one%20Columbia%2Dclass,required%20to%20build%20one%20Virginia%20in%202015. 

The Unlikely Rise of the Indian Space Program

From REAL ENGINEERING uploaded May 18 2025 HERE.
---

Like all space agencies India's ISRO is of dual-use military civilian benefit, particularly in rocket booster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO#Launch_vehicles satellite sensors and guidance research. Wikipedia reports https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO : 

"The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister of India, with the Chairman of ISRO also serving as the chief executive of the DoS. It is primarily responsible for space-based operations, space exploration, international space cooperation and the development of related technologies.^[3] The agency maintains a constellation of imaging, communications and remote sensing satellites. It operates the GAGAN and IRNSS satellite navigation systems. It has sent three missions to the Moon and one mission to Mars.

Formerly known as the Indian National Committee for Space Research  ISRO was set up in 1962 by the Government of India. It was renamed as ISRO in 1969.

ISRO built India's first satellite Aryabhata which was launched by the Soviet space agency Interkosmos in 1975.^[8] In 1980, it launched the satellite RS-1 on board the indigenously built launch vehicle SLV-3, making India the seventh country to undertake orbital launches. It has subsequently developed various small-lift and medium-lift launch vehicles, enabling the agency to launch various satellites and deep space missions. It is one of the six government space agencies in the world that possess full launch capabilities with the ability to deploy cryogenic engines, launch extraterrestrial missions and artificial satellites.^[9][10][b] It is also the only one of the four governmental space agencies to have demonstrated unmanned soft landing capabilities.^[11][c]

ISRO's programmes have played a significant role in socio-economic development. It has supported both civilian and military domains in various aspects such as disaster management, telemedicine, navigation and reconnaissance. ISRO's spin-off technologies have also aided in new innovations in engineering and other allied domains.^[12]

The arrival of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 1990s was a major boost for the Indian space programme. With the exception of its first flight in 1994 and two partial failures later, the PSLV had a streak of more than 50 successful flights. The PSLV enabled India to launch all of its low Earth orbit satellites, small payloads to GTO and hundreds of foreign satellites.^[32] Along with the PSLV flights, development of a new rocket, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) was going on. India tried to obtain upper-stage cryogenic engines from Russia's Glavkosmos but was blocked by the US from doing so. As a result, KVD-1 engines were imported from Russia under a new agreement which had limited success^[33] and a project to develop indigenous cryogenic technology was launched in 1994, taking two decades to reach fulfillment.^[34] A new agreement was signed with Russia for seven KVD-1 cryogenic stages and a ground mock-up stage with no technology transfer, instead of five cryogenic stages along with the technology and design in the earlier agreement.^[35] These engines were used for the initial flights and were named GSLV Mk.1.^[36] ISRO was under US government sanctions between 6 May 1992 to 6 May 1994.^[37] After the United States refused to help India with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology during the Kargil war, ISRO was prompted to develop its own satellite navigation system IRNSS (now NaVIC i.e. Navigation with Indian Constellation) which it is now expanding further.^[38]

21st century

In 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged scientists to develop technologies to land humans on the Moon^[39] and programmes for lunar, planetary and crewed missions were started. ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 aboard PSLV in 2008, purportedly the first probe to verify the presence of water on the Moon.^[40]

ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (or Mangalyaan) aboard a PSLV in 2013, which later became the first Asian spacecraft to enter Martian orbit, making India the first country to succeed at this on its first attempt.^[41]

Subsequently, the cryogenic upper stage for GSLV rocket became operational, making India the sixth country to have full launch capabilities.^[42] A new heavier-lift launcher LVM3 was introduced in 2014 for heavier satellites and future human space missions.^[43]

On 23 August 2023, India achieved its first soft landing on an extraterrestrial body and became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon with ISRO's Chandrayaan-3, the third Moon mission.^[44] Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 (lit. "Mooncraft"), saw the successful soft landing of its Vikram lander at 6.04 pm IST (12:34 pm GMT) near the little-explored southern pole of the Moon in a world's first for any space programme.^[45]

India then successfully launched its first solar probe, the Aditya-L1, aboard a PSLV on 2 September 2023.^[46][47]

On 30 December 2024, ISRO successfully launched the SpaDeX mission, pioneering spacecraft rendezvous, docking, and undocking using two small satellites.^[48][49] On 16 January 2025, the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network's Mission Operations Complex verified that the docking process was successful. India became the 4th country — after USA, Russia and China — to achieve successful Space Docking.^[50][51][52] ISRO also successfully managed to control two satellites as a single entity after docking.^[53]

Launch facilities

• Satish Dhawan Space Centre
• SSLV Launch Complex
• Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station

Future projects

ISRO is developing and operationalising more powerful and less pollutive rocket engines so it can eventually develop much heavier rockets. It also plans space station above earth where astronauts can stay for 15–20 days. The time frame is 5–7 years after Gaganyaan,^[150] to develop electric and nuclear propulsion for satellites and spacecraft to reduce their weight and extend their service lives.^[190] Long-term plans may include crewed landings on the Moon and other planets as well.^[191]"

US Gov Giving Columbia Subs Priority Over AUKUS Commitment

The US Government is giving production of Columbia SSBNs priority over AUKUS Virginia commitments.

Rather than producing 2.33 Virginias per year to meet AUKUS commitments, the US Government is producing only 1.1 to 1.2 (page 56 reference below) Virginias per year. 

This is in order to permit "top priority" (page 50) to be given to 1 Columbia class SSBN launch per year. 

"One COLUMBIA Class SSBN represents approximately 2.5 [Virginia class] VACL SSNs in terms of build resources (manning) and tonnage." (page 62)

The reference is the US Congressional Research Service's Navy Virginia-Class Submarine Program and AUKUS Submarine (Pillar 1) Project: Background and Issues for Congress of February 11, 2025 at https://sgp.fas.org/crs/weapons/RL32418.pdf

Scott on USN's SSN Shortage "money won't fix this problem"

Scott, on June 20, 2025, provided the excellent comments below :

"Thanks Pete. As an engineer I have zero confidence in the USA turning this [the USN's SSN shortage] around, whether Democrats or Republicans are in charge. Biden never once increased the USN budgeted number of Virginias in the three budgets he delivered after AUKUS [in 2022, 2023 and 2024). Trump may not either.

Yet this problem extends beyond budgets. In many sectors if the government workforce is inadequate they can hire workers from the private sector. Not shipbuilding. [Firstly] The USA has declined as a shipbuilding power to the point it makes virtually no ships except for government (mostly naval) contracts. There are no private sector workers with the high level welding skills needed for sub hulls to hire in. [Major submarine builders] GDEB and HII must either hire and train more young workers, or they will not expand production.

This leads to the second problem - lack of attraction to young workers. Despite the high prices they charge the USN, US shipyards are low payers. This is especially problematic for sub builders, who need the highest skills. Why would a top welder join a shipyard when the pay for those skills is far higher in the oil and gas industry?

[See John Grady's USNI March 11, 2025 article "Increasing wages for shipyard workers is the top challenge when attracting and retaining everyone from pipefitters to naval architects, a naval analyst told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday" at https://news.usni.org/2025/03/11/pay-number-one-issue-in-growing-u-s-shipbuilding-workforce-panel-tells-hasc ]

The final problem is that internal engineering skills have declined within USN, ever since they cut back the old internal design bureau, BuShips. In making structural savings, the USN kept the bean counters but cut the engineers and scientists. So now they know they have a technical problem, but not how to fix it.

More money won't fix this problem, whether from Australian or US taxpayers. When supply is fixed and demand goes up, the price goes up. That is what is happening - inflation of USN SSN costs, but no increase in output."

Confirmed: Israel Coerced the US into Bombing Iran

Further to my post of June 16, 2025 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/06/israel-may-coerce-us-bomber-involvement.html
my sources confirm Israel coerced the US into bombing Iran.

Israel argued 10 days ago that without US heavy bunker buster GBU-57 assistance Israel would have no alternative but to use low-to-intermediate yield nuclear bombs against Iran's deep dug nuclear enrichment sites at Fordow and Natanz. 

The light, around 600kg, air dropped Israeli nuclear bombs in question are similar to the US's 540kg B61-11 free fall nuclear bunker buster bombs. See The B61 family of nuclear bombs by Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris Pages 79-84  Published online: Nov 27, 2015 at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1177/0096340214531546#d1e111

The B61-11s are heavier, with a hardened casing, than average 324kg B61s, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb as the B61-11s need to penetrate some earth, rock or concrete before exploding.

Nuclear Site Targets in TEHRAN for Israeli & US Air Forces: Plutonium.

Now that my prediction in my article of June 19, 2025
"Likely Targets of US B2 bombers: Tehran, Natanz & Fordow"
at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/06/likely-targets-of-us-b2-bombers-tehran.html

has become fact, on June 22, 2025.

Targets under Tehran have not been hit - yet - by US aircraft. Although Israeli aircraft have been hitting targets in Tehran for several days.

While the focus of Israeli and now US bombing may be Uranium enrichment and highly enriched uranium (HEU) storage, Plutonium also presents an explosive threat used in  nuclear weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#Nuclear_fission

Nuclear reactor and Plutonium reprocessing sites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing around Iran may now be on Israeli and US target lists. 

The danger of the Israeli and US air forces bombing Plutonium production reactors in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran, is the radioactive dust clouds that will rain down on Tehran and on the broader MidEast region. A similar ruptured reactor, radioactive dust, dispersal tragedy, occurred in the European region during and after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_facilities_in_Iran#Tehran_Nuclear_Research_Center :

"Tehran Nuclear Research Center

The Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) brings together a number of Iranian nuclear research facilities, including...plutonium separation^[109][110] and purification,^[108][111] uranium conversion,^[112] laser enrichment, and polonium production.^[113]

These activities, many of which have direct applications in nuclear weapons development, have drawn international scrutiny, particularly due to Iran’s failure to disclose them fully to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).^[112] The presence of advanced research infrastructure within the TNRC has further raised concerns about Iran’s nuclear intentions, as the facility’s capabilities extend beyond civilian applications and into sensitive areas relevant to weapons proliferation.^[108]

Tehran Research Reactor

The Tehran Research Reactor (TRR)...was primarily designated for medical isotope production, its capability to operate with highly enriched uranium (HEU) raised concerns about its possible military applications.^[114] The facility’s ability to produce materials relevant to nuclear weapons development made it a subject of international scrutiny and regulatory measures within the framework of the nuclear agreement.^[114]

The reactor was supplied by the United States under the Atoms for Peace program...

After the Iranian Revolution, the United States cut off the supply of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel for the TRR, which forced the reactor to be shut down for a number of years.^[118][119] Due to the nuclear proliferation concerns caused by the use of HEUs and following Reduced Enrichment Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) Programs, Iran signed agreements with Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission to convert the TRR from highly enriched uranium fuel to low-enriched uranium, and to supply the low-enriched uranium to Iran in 1987–88. TRR core was converted to use Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) fuels in 1993.^[120]

On the other hand, during the same time period, between 1988 and 1993, Iran conducted undeclared experiments in uranium reprocessing at the TRR, and between 1991-1993 separated approximately 100 milligrams of plutonium, an amount 500 times higher than the 200 micrograms which it declared.^[112] Additionally, Iran attempted to extract the Polonium-210 isotope by irradiating two bismuth targets, which together with beryllium serves as a neutron initiator in a number of nuclear weapon designs.^[121][108] Although Iran stated that these actions were experiments for the feasibility of radioisotope thermoelectric generator production, the IAEA expressed doubt regarding Iran's declared intentions.^[121][108]

Fuel elements of TRR are now plate-type U₃O₈-Al with approximately 20% enrichment.^[122] In February 2012, Iran loaded the first domestically produced fuel element into the Tehran Research Reactor.^[123]...." Ends