Submarine Industrial Base Council (SIBC)’s Post

It seems like the SSN-AUKUS budget of some $245bn is equal to some 50GW of nuclear generation - more than enough to 100% decarbonization of Australia’s power and transportation sectors for the next 100 years. But it seems like “de facto” climate is less of concern compared to using U235 for submarines 

“Australia is expected to invest up to A$368bn ($244.9bn) over the next 30 years in the SSN-AUKUS development programme, which will include investments of A$2bn and A$8bn to upgrade the Osborne Naval shipyard in South Australia and the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia, respectively.” Hypocrisy that Labor won’t lift the nuclear energy bans to build reliable, safe, clean, cost effective next generation nuclear power stations to replace coal stations.

SSN-AUKUS submarines development and delivery details: The SSN-AUKUS submarines for the UK Royal Navy will be constructed at the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK. The first batch of the new submarines is expected to be delivered in the late 2030s, which will replace the existing Astute-class submarines in the UK Navy. The Royal Australian Navy is expected to acquire a total of eight SSN-AUKUS submarines, which will be built at the Osborne Naval shipyard in Adelaide, South Australia and will be delivered to the navy in the early 2040s. Australia is expected to invest up to A$368bn ($244.9bn) over the next 30 years in the SSN-AUKUS development programme, which will include investments of A$2bn and A$8bn to upgrade the Osborne Naval shipyard in South Australia and the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia, respectively. Australia’s investment in the programme will also strengthen the industrial bases in the UK and the US to build and support the submarines. The UK government will invest £5bn through 2025 to upgrade the country’s nuclear enterprise and fund the SSN-AUKUS submarine development. https://lnkd.in/g-pqpc2T

In 1986, the British Ministry of Defence began exploring prospective replacements for the Swiftsure- and Trafalgar-class submarines. Initially known as SSN20, the project was a Cold War venture that continued the Royal Navy’s emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, working to counter the increasingly sophisticated Soviet submarines. SSN20 was designed to match the capabilities of Soviet submarines – with improved nuclear propulsion, enhanced firepower, a more complex “integrated sonar suite” and combat systems. While researching and designing SSN20, the British – caught up in the Cold War defense spending fervor – did not concern themselves with price. Costs were not considered a “constraint.” Yet, like America, when the Cold War ended, the British reevaluated their spending priorities. In 1990, SSN20 was canceled. A new submarine design program was started – this time with an effort to constrain costs; the British opted to build a new class that was derived from the existing Trafalgar-class (which was in turn derived from the preceding Swiftsure-class). The new project, beginning in June 1991, became known as the Batch 2 Trafalgar-class, or B2TC.

As the frequency of the US SSBN moored in foreign ports started to make a comeback after putting the mission into a halt for over a decade, check out our analysis discussing the evolving pattern of US boomers in conducting foreign port calls and its relevance as a strategic approach for its extended deterrence.

Navy Vice Adm. Robert M. Gaucher, commander of U.S. Naval Submarine Forces, said that key to a successful rollout of the first pillar is taking measured steps to develop Australia's nuclear submarine forces side-by-side with the U.S. "They can take advantage of our training resources, and then they can go out and ride along on our submarines while they're building up their knowledge and experience in the entire spectrum on maintenance training operations to be ready," he said during a panel discussion at Sea-Air-Space 2024, an exposition hosted by the Navy League at National Harbor, Maryland. Gaucher said once Australia receives its first Virginia-class submarine, its operators will already have ample experience operating on the platform. "It's a very deliberate pace, very steady," he said. "If there's a problem they can phone home, we can help solve it along the way. And then as they build up their experience operating on nuclear submarines, then we get to the point where the first AUKUS submarine comes online." "I look at interoperability between the United Kingdom, Australia and United States as seamless and ever changing," Gaucher said. He said AUKUS builds upon the that interoperability — forged by decades of alliance — by expanding the three countries' combined operational footprint, expanding maintenance capacity between the three countries and bolstering their industrial bases. "It's a win-win situation for the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom," he said. https://lnkd.in/gUyCj_4t

All four Vanguards are outfitted with a Rolls-Royce PWR2 nuclear reactor, which can convert water into steam to drive the engines and generate electricity. The Vanguard can reach speeds in excess of 25 knots – a respectable speed for the nearly 500-foot vessel – for a virtually unlimited range.

Honolulu Star Advertiser, Written by William Cole, Military Writer– Nuclear arms experts think North Korea already has, or soon will have, the ability to target Hawaii with a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile with possibly about the same destructive force as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Warnings are mounting apace with that growing threat. “North Korea’s unprecedented level of nuclear testing and ballistic missile development offers a sobering reminder that the United States must remain vigilant against rogue nation-states that are able to threaten the homeland,” Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson, who heads the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told a congressional committee Thursday. In Hawaii a profusion of four-star military commands — including U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees U.S. military activity over half the globe — makes Oahu a strategic and symbolic target. The threat from an unpredictable North Korea, in turn, is prompting a revisitation of some old Cold War practices that until recently seemed laughable. https://lnkd.in/gbsi3bvY