Are Australia’s SSN ambitions ‘sub-optimal’? (Opinion)
The USN currently has 19 nuclear-powered Virginia-class SSN vessels in service, with USS North Dakota pictured here. (Photo: USN)
Some describe Australia’s SSN plans as marking the country’s coming of age, but there are still too many questions whether it will work out the way planners imagine.
In 2021, Australia declared it had set its heart on obtaining nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN) to help meet the strategic threat posed primarily by China. As the leaders of Australia, the UK and the US assembled in San Diego on 13 March to announce the optimal pathway forward, it all appeared rather straightforward on paper.
But let there be no mistake. Australia has set itself a Herculean task, one where the instigators of AUKUS perhaps did not realise the sheer magnitude that lay before them. Furthermore, the country is locking itself into a route from which there is little chance
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