Image source: topwar.ru
Kurt Campbell, the White House Senior Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region, is confident that Australia, Britain and the United States will be able to cope with the problem of creating nuclear submarine forces for Australia. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday, he said that after 18 months of intensive study and discussions, “we have the necessary understanding” what needs to be done for the construction and maintenance of submarines, as well as to study the transfer of technology between the three allies. That is, a year and a half and millions of dollars have been spent trying to understand something, what exactly is not yet clear.
Admiral Michael Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, said that conversations between the leadership of the navies of the three countries over the past 18 months have been frank in assessing the risk, seeing how the agreement is progressing and where it is not progressing as quickly as expected.
Gilday said.
When asked where the two submarines that the United States says they will provide to Australia for the interim period will come from, Gilday said:
Campbell found the number of submarines in dry dock awaiting lengthy repairs alarming, referring to Los Angeles-class submarines such as the USS Boise (SSN-764), which have been waiting for repairs for years due to delays at public and private shipyards.
That is, neither the fleet commander nor the political curator of this direction knows when and where the MAPLS will come from to carry out this program. Theoretically, it is possible to transfer to Australia, a couple of "not completely finished" "moose", but given the situation with ship repair in the USA, this is unlikely. And will the Australians agree to very much used boats, because initially, it was about the new "Virginias".
As for the second side of the AUKUS agreement, technology transfer, Gilday and Campbell saw great potential for cooperation with other close allies in the field of artificial intelligence, anti-submarine defense and unmanned systems.
Campbell said.
That is, so far, there is nothing else besides a set of good intentions. And this is taking into account the fact that a scandal is also breaking out in Australia with Hunter-type frigates.
Conversations on the topic of AUKUS continue, but the optimism of the participants has diminished.
