AUKUS

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Just my two cents. Probably the single biggest risk to AUKUS is workforce.

Australia has had over a decade with extremely contracted manufacturing and tech industries. Making it worse is the usual, poorly targetted programs to attract and retain people, overlooking and pissing off those already in the industry.
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Defence struggling to process staff security clearances needed ahead of AUKUS rush - ABC News
ABC is reporting that Defence has a backlog of mandatory security clearances backing up. Blame is being levelled at a new IT system, called, My Clearance, which was introduced in Nov 22.
Well it's not working that well, I had a flurry of emails yesterday about my sponsor registering, deregistering interest in my clearance from a company I have never worked for, on behalf of a company I haven't worked for in a number of years.

What a mess.
 

hauritz

Well-Known Member
I also think workforce and skills could be the big issue. They say it takes 10 years to create an expert but we are even futher behind the eight ball than that. At this stage you have UniSA and Flinders rushing to put together courses. Even putting together a university course is a huge undertaking.

Flinders University is partnering with the University of Manchester in order to fast track the development of these courses. UniSA is looking at partners from the USA and UK to kick start its courses.

Having said that I think AUKUS is too big to fail. It has already survived one change of government. Looking at Nuclear Submarines, which is just one aspect of AUKUS, it appears Australia will get SSNs regardless of whether or not we can actually ever build them ourselves. Initially we get three subs. We have options for another two which could give us extra breathing space should things fail to kick off as expected. After that who knows, perhaps we just continue buying overseas submarines until we get our act together.

Other industries such as Aerospace and IT will also have big demands made of them although these industries are better placed to deal with these demands than our non-existent nuclear industry.
 

Redlands18

Well-Known Member
A interview with Vice Admiral Mead, confirming the Collins LOTE is going ahead on all 6 Collins Subs. Includes the old standard, why will all 8 SSNs not be at sea at the same time :rolleyes:
 

IHFP

Member
I was doing some looking at how dry the geography around Perth is. Considering that a new military installation and multiple subs may be stationed near the city, it could be an awful drain on the water. Hopefully the infrastructure can accomidate the thousands of new residents, over decades.
 
Last edited:

Julian 82

Active Member
I was doing some looking at how dry the geography around Perth is. Considering that a new military installation and multiple subs may be stationed near the city, it could be an awful drain on the water. Hopefully the infrastructure can accomidate the thousands of new residents, over decades.
Mate. We have desalination plants. Our water supply is drought proof. Maybe try googling next time.
 

John Newman

The Bunker Group
Mate. We have desalination plants. Our water supply is drought proof. Maybe try googling next time.
Yes I don’t think the people of Perth (population currently 2.1m+) is about to go thirsty anytime soon.

Any increase in population directly attributed to AUKUS will only be a very small drop in the big Perth bucket (pun intended).
 

John Newman

The Bunker Group
I doubt that includes the money that Australia invested in the "Shortfin" program to begin with. After reading the numbers in this article I'm starting to feel a little light headed. Why Australia wanted out of its French submarine deal
Clearly getting out of the deal, and settling up, with the Froggies isn’t cheap.

But.... that’s the price you pay for moving on from a fleet of conventional subs to a fleet of nuclear subs, which are more appropriate for Australia’s strategic circumstances.

Nothing comes cheap in life (except for the Canucks who always look for the ‘cheap’ option that eventually ends up costing twice as much in the end).

No point in hand wringing or crying over spilt milk, we just move on.

But not all is lost either, investments in the combat system will transition over to the SSN AUKUS fleet, and possibly other systems too.

Anyway, past is past.
 
Top