7 months ago
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Former PM lashes Aukus pillar 1 submarine deal, arguing the US is producing half as many as needed. Follow the day’s news live
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says that Australia is “bopping along as a cork in the maelstrom of American politics” as he continues to criticise the Aukus pillar 1 submarine deal.
Speaking on ABC RN, Turnbull said if the United States doesn’t dramatically increase the pace in which it is producing submarines, there is “no reason to believe that [Australia] will ever get the submarines that were promised under Aukus”.
This is what happens when … a sovereign nation abandons its sovereignty.
On Aukus pillar one we are effectively in conflict with the needs of the US Navy, and you know as well as I do the American government, when it comes to a choice between the needs of the US Navy and the Australian Navy, are always going to back there own.
[There is] an alternative solution, which has been publicly canvassed in Congress, which is what they call a division of labour, and that is where we don’t get any submarines from the United States [and] we would invest in other capabilities and the Americans … would basically provide that submarine protection for us…
The US navy is trying to increase its submarine fleet actually to meet the rapid growth in the Chinese navy, in particular [with] submarines. To do that to meet its own requirements, it needs to double its current production of Virginia-class submarines. And so, of course, in order to transfer submarines to Australia in the 2030s, three and possibly five under the Aukus pillar 1 deal, they’ve got to increase their production even more.
Now, right at the moment, they’re not only producing about half as many submarines as they believe they need, but they also are not able to maintain the submarines they have …
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