The first head of the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, has announced he will retire in mid-2026. Mead was recruited to the then secret Nuclear Powered Submarine Task Force in February 2021, seven months before the AUKUS submarine pact was unveiled in September 2021.
Mead’s exit may coincide with Australia’s AUKUS submarine plan now being in disarray because the US has offered South Korea competing access to limited US nuclear submarine technology, production and probably training resources.
In what may be a major ASA failure it appears Australia only became aware of the US-South Korea Nuclear Submarine deal when it was announced by Trump on Truth Social on October 30, 2025. This lack of notice or advice to Australia represents yet another example of Trumpist bad faith towards the US allies.
5 comments:
In other news:
Australian Consortium to Build Underwater ‘Network’ for Northern Naval
Watch:
"Thales Australia, Austal, and C2 Robotics have teamed up to develop a sub-
sea “surveillance network” designed to monitor and secure Australia’s northern
maritime chokepoints.
The locally built platform will combine C2 Robotics’ proprietary Speartooth
long-endurance unmanned underwater vehicles with Thales’ BlueSentry towed
array and BlueSeeker passive sonar technology, enhancing coverage across
vast ocean areas."
See:
https://thedefensepost.com/2025/11/07/australia-underwater-naval-network/
Where one door closes, another opens. Japan’s defense minister publicly makes the case for nuclear powered submarines (SSNs) for JNSDF.
MHI has great design and construction capabilities - better than UK and perhaps even USA. A potential partner for Australia?
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16143129
Hi Anonymous at 11/09/2025 9:20 AM
Japan expressing interest in nuclear submarines once South Korea makes nuclear submarine progress is no surprise. I have been predicting it since 2020, if not earlier, see my:
"S Korea richer than Russia: So SK SSBN might be Affordable" of August 2021 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2021/08/s-korea-richer-than-russia-so-sk-ssbn.html
https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2021/12/s-korean-built-nuke-sub-reactor-likely.html of December 2021
"S. Korean & Japanese Nuclear Submarine Propulsion & Weapons" of August 2020 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2020/08/s-korean-japanese-nuclear-submarine.html
Also see: https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2019/10/south-korea-looking-at-frances.html
and
https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/09/russia-suspected-of-helping-north-korea.html
Regards Pete
Yes Pete I never said you were wrong about those articles. The politics between Korea, Japan and USA is changing so quickly now that IMO Japanese or Korean SSNs might precede SSN AUKUS rather than follow it.
Hi Anonymous at 11/09/2025 7:34 PM
Yes I agree with you. By my calculation Australia may only get Virginias in 2043 , once the US has completed the higher priority Columbia-class SSBNs in 2042.
South Korea and Japan's nuclear reactor experience and track records of building submarines on time suggest they can launch SSNs (and perhaps also SSBNs for SK) before 2043.
Regards Pete
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