The committee, chaired by Tan Dhesi, the Labour member for Slough, records reporting that all five of the Astute class nuclear attack submarines then in service had recently been tied up in dockyards at the same time, with none deployed.
[same ukdj article reports]...Professor David Blagden of the University of Exeter told the committee: “[i]t was reported in the media quite recently that a French SSN [attack submarine] had been seen in Faslane around the time that one of [our] SSBNs sailed on its patrol… [i]s this the French now doing ‘delousing’ for a UK nuclear deterrent submarine going on patrol? Is that great alliance solidarity or is it, ‘Oh my god, we can’t get one of our own SSNs to sea to do one of the highest missions?'”
Delousing is the activity in which an attack submarine sanitises the waters around a ballistic missile submarine to ensure it is not being tracked or tailed by an adversary as it leaves on or returns from a deterrent patrol.
The Rt Hon the Lord Case, chair of Team Barrow, told the committee in November 2025 that the government is saying to the defence industry “[p]lease, how quickly can you build our nuclear submarines for us? We are having to make up for decades of neglect.”
[same ukdj article reports]....Retired Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, a former Director of Nuclear Policy at the Ministry of Defence, said in December 2025 that one consequence of a lack of investment in the submarine fleet was that the duration of patrols for Vanguard class crews, which were seventy days during the Cold War, were now more than two hundred days, and that there was a shockingly low availability of submarines to counter the Russian threat in the High North..."
------------------------
Why were all five Astutes unavailable?
Brandon Weichert at 19fortyfive on October 23, 2026 at https://www.19fortyfive.com/2026/10/all-5-of-britains-astute-class-attack-submarines-were-tied-up-in-june-and-the-reason-is-not-the-submarines-britain-has-2-yards-that-can-work-on-a-nuclear-boat-and-the-missile-subs-go-first/ explained:
"Summary and Key Points: Britain’s five Astute-class nuclear attack submarines were all in port in June [2026], and Brandon Weichert argues the cause is a shipyard crisis: only two nuclear-certified yards and a mandate that puts the Vanguard missile submarines first. HMS Ambush has not sailed since 2022 and is being stripped for parts. HMS Agamemnon, launched in 2024, awaits sea trials, and HMS Achilles sits unfinished. Construction of the SSN-AUKUS [Australia happy with technically unreliable UK?] replacement is due ["cut steel" political mythology] to begin in 2027."
On October 27, 2026 (a day after my ["cut steel" political mythology] comment that I made above on October 26, 2026) this author subsequently concurred.
Pete Comment
So the UK's four Vanguard SSBNs get priority for long and shorter term maintenance especially their faulty PWR2 reactor piping arrangements. The UK's five often unavailable Astutes, also with the same faulty reactor arrangements, (see Wiki) are repaired later, if at all.
G'day:
While Pete and I are usually rather doom and gloom about anything regarding Australia's underwater capabilities, one very bright spark is the full-rate production of the Ghost Shark XL-AUV (XtraLarge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle aka XLUUV),
In prelude to a Ghost Shark unit appearing in the AUKUS Pillar II Maritime Big Play Pacific demonstration off San Diego, Australia showed off some of the payload integrated into the AUV for this demonstration.
Ghost Shark's (and Bluebottle's - see below) purchase prices, operations and remote manpower support are likely to be vastly cheaper than manned conventional, or (particularly) nuclear powered, submarines.
— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) October 21, 2026The Asteria mine has a diameter of 530mm and a length of up to 3150mm. This could imply that the Ghost Shark can accommodate a lightweight (or is that "middleweight"?) ASW torpedo, such as the MU90 Impact that is in RAN service.
Re: Attack on Australian Federal politician Dr Helen Haines MP
(Dr Haines has now lost both of her legs). Tragically Dr Haines may still die, from infection in combination with "blood poisoning".
From OPEN SOURCE AI:
AI goes further back than most people think eg. the US-Israeli multi-million lines of code Stuxnet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet) Iranian nuclear program wreck-ware extends back to 2009 (if not earlier). Stuxnet escaped its anti-Iran focus by the 2010s and began to attack unintended Western and Russian networks - with an international joint Western and Russian effort eg, Kaspersky Lab finally combatting Stuxnet's spill over.
These things continue to happen in intended? or untended? ways. We only see the US (massive AI) corporate face of what continues to be a heavily civilian and military intelligence reliant software world. Many middle level US AI company experts received/receive their higher level training while they worked/work for US civilian and military intelligence.
AI overview as at October 19, 2026 with some additional Wikipedia links and Pete's comments in square bolded [...] brackets.
"Indonesia is rapidly modernizing its military under President Prabowo Subianto through major multi-billion-dollar acquisitions spanning fighter jets, warships, submarines, and precision miissiles. [1, 2]
[Pete comment - Subianto's military career [early start in Kopassus and already a General in 1985, goes right back to the Suharto era (being Suharto's son-in-law). But Subianto, now a centrist President, has not turned into the right-wing, coup-inciting, dictator many feared would happen.
Indonesia continues its pattern of buying weapons from many countries: especially France, Turkey, Italy, Russo-Indian BrahMos, maybe from China - maybe to extract favourable offers from the US. The list below does not count the many other orders by Indonesia, arrived (eg. from Russia) or on their way from many other countries: eg. aircraft ships 103 Leopard 2s already here.
Indonesia's weapons are mainly focussed on internal security and regional competitors. Unlike Australia (with help from the US) Indonesia has no pretensions to get in a medium level fight against China.].
