We discuss the March announcement that the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) security partnership will help Australia develop conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs). We go over the recent history of Australia’s position in the Indo Pacific and strategic thinking in recent years about AUS pursuing conventional submarines or nuclear powered submarines. We also address other potential areas of technological cooperation between the AUKUS parties, before diving into some specifics about the current Collins-class SSNS and the plans for these new AUKUS-SSNs.
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