November 17, 2020

China! A French-Australian Nuclear Program Obvious

While Australia’s Trump damaged US alliance shifts to a Biden Administration Australia is again wringing its hands over “What Can We Do Against The China Threat?”

WHAT AUSTRALIA SHOULD DO

Fortunately Australia is buying the first diesel version of the French Barracuda SSN.
 
French Barracuda SSNs are relatively small and cheap compared to larger, more expensive, US observance of NPT blocked, US/UK SSNs.

The Australian public is Not Yet ready to OK Australia purchasing the French Barracuda Nuclear Propelled submarine but will be by 2030, by which time:

(A) the Chinese threat will create sufficient fear.

(B) Australia will have started building 4 diesel Barracudas (known as Attack class) from the early 2030s. There will be time to modify the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Attack class subs to the original Barracuda NUCLEAR propelled baseline and arm them with nuclear warhead cruise missiles (N-SLCMs?).

(C) If Australia sticks with the French Nuclear path the next 4 subs could be nuclear armed ballistic missile (SLBM) firing submarines, known as SSBNs. Fortunately France already has new SSBNs on the drawing board, known as SNLE 3G, to be built in France from the 2030s.

Note that France has a track record of helping Israel build a nuclear weapons establishment and Jericho MRBM/IRBMs to carry them. France then conducted Joint Nuclear Tests with Israel in the Sahara and Pacific.

From the early 2020s until the mid 2030s the US will likely decide that Australia switching such vast $ sums and a nuclear future to a French alliance is disturbing for America's military industrial complex and the US Indo-Pacific alliance.

The USA will be far more attentive and forthcoming with nuclear weapons for us - its Australian ally.

(D) If you want to get a "new idea" read an "old book", like the following article on Australian Prime Minister John Gorton's AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR DETERRENT at 
http://www.smh.com.au/national/when-australia-had-a-bombshell-for-us-20080705-32ai.html

3 comments:

GhalibKabir said...

Not unless the Quad or whatever can walk the talk. Else, Australia will not get a nuclear SSN fleet as a LEU based fleet needing refueling every 7-10 years is a costly thing to sink US$ 100-200 billion into.

Unless SIGINT collaboration, Undersea collaboration incl. bigger IUSS backed by UUV and UAV coordination materializes tangibly, the PLA will keep having an open field.

Most importantly, in case there are serious risks of flare-ups, unless there is serious signalling to China in terms of assured retaliation in terms of EW response, ASAT retaliations on Chinese satellite constellations etc..china will brush this away like an elephant swatting away a fly.

To use underwater as an illustration, this is what it will take to make china take things seriously in the Indian Ocean and SCS

1. SIGINT/ELINT sats linked up across to P-8s, E-2Ds, RC-4s/UAVs etc across from India to Australia

2. IUSS/SOSUS: These are to have links to AUV/UUVs and also to sats above

3. Subs: Along with UUVs, midget subs, AIP bearing SSKs, SSNs etc. need to be used in a 4 layer mesh. India, US, Australia, UK, France etc might need to collaborate here to manage the nearly 80 sub plus innumerable UUV holding PLAN.

4. Surface vessels: Right from sharing bathymetry data etc, major surface vessels need to carry good VDS suites and be able to coordinate

5. Air support, missiles and munitions: Again SEAD/DEAD suite bearing fighters, long range munitions, BVRAAM missiles will need coordinated deployment to sustain parity or if not, a small 'first see, first shoot'chance against PLAN planes like the KJ-50/600s and J-20/31s

This is the bare minimum needed... meaningless 'viagra for hermaphrodites' gestures like FONOPs won't cut any ice..

Pete said...

Hi GhalibKabir

Thanks for your comment. I'll use it as an article on Monday.

Meantime:

Yes its better to coordinate with the nearby powers of the Quad than relying on alliance with Western European powers that may well be distracted by Russia-in-Europe in any type of major/world war.

Is India still shopping for stealth air superiority fighters after the collapse of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-57 deal?

Regards

Pete

Pete said...

Hi GhalibKabir

Thanks again, for your comments. They are now part of:

"Quadrilateral: Networked Defence Against Chinese Military Advances"

of Nov 23, 2020 at http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2020/11/quadrilateral-networked-defence-against.html

Cheers

Pete