Australia's creation of its own nuclear submarine fleet will take two decades
The creation of its own nuclear submarine fleet will cost Australia $ 122 billion, writes TASS, citing an analysis by the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy.
"The new venture will be large-scale and probably the largest and most complex that Australia has ever founded. The challenges, costs and risks will be enormous, and it will be at least two decades before Australia actually strengthens its military capabilities with nuclear submarines," the document says.
According to analysts, nuclear submarines will provide Australia with a strategic advantage in the Pacific Ocean. Experts predict that the growth of geopolitical tensions in the region should not be expected earlier than 2050.
In September, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov, commenting on the creation of the AUKUS defense alliance, said that the termination of the contract with France for the construction of submarines of the Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A project in favor of American (Virginia) or British (Astute) is beneficial to Australia, since non-nuclear submarines are inferior to nuclear submarines in their effectiveness.
Within the framework of the AUKUS alliance, announced in the same month by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, the parties planned to exchange defense technologies with each other. In particular, Canberra will receive technologies for creating nuclear submarines from Washington or London. At the same time, the contract for the creation of non-nuclear submarines by Paris for Canberra was terminated.