Submarine & Nuclear Matters

About subs, military/naval, nuclear weapons & enrichment; political issues. New Aussie subs have been just talk since 2009. The Collins LOTE 2028-2040 might help sub availability temporarily. UUVs help. POTUS 2031 may cancel AUKUS Virginias as USN needs all SSNs to the 2040s. Australian Gov ignoring higher priority US Columbia SSBN production is minimising Virginia production until 2043. Shawn C is an excellent author. Indians Gessler & Karthik have been warned off by governments.

July 7, 2025

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.