And pissed off the French who will lose out on supplying their own ($$$) subs…..
The American defense policy is moving from the Middle East to countering China…
This submarine type is to hunt down other subs…..
Australia will get its first nuclear-powered submarines under a new trilateral relationship with the United States and United Kingdom intended to improve security in the Pacific, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday.
The move will put nuclear-powered submarines, which have longer range than Australia’s current conventional subs and can stay underwater for months, in China’s backyard as the administration seeks to pivot its foreign policy to the Indo-Pacific region.
“This is about investing in our greatest source of strength—our alliances—and updating them to better meet the threats of today and tomorrow,” Biden said at the White House, flanked virtually by leaders from the United Kingdom and Australia. “This initiative is about making sure that each of us has a modern capability, the most modern capability we need to maneuver and defend against rapidly evolving threats.”
A senior administration official expanded a bit on the idea.
“We undertake this effort as part of a larger constellation of steps including stronger bilateral partnerships with our traditional security partners in Asia…and also stronger engagement with new partners like India, Vietnam, and new formations like the Quad,” the official said.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., applauded the deal, saying that it is a “concrete” step to counter Beijing….
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More broadly, the new trilateral partnership, which will be known by the acronym AUKUS, will include increased cooperation on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, as well as more integration of industrial bases and supply chains, the senior administration official said….
President Biden’s announcement of a deal to help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines has strained the Western alliance, infuriating France and foreshadowing how the conflicting American and European responses to confrontation with China may redraw the global strategic map.
In announcing the deal on Wednesday, Mr. Biden said it was meant to reinforce alliances and update them as strategic priorities shift. But in drawing a Pacific ally closer to meet the China challenge, he appears to have alienated an important European one and aggravated already tense relations with Beijing….
US Hunter-Killer Attack Sub’s…..
image….Naval Technology
Update…
This ‘deal’ was a caper against France….
The United States and Australia went to extraordinary lengths to keep Paris in the dark as they secretly negotiated a plan to build nuclear submarines, scuttling France’s largest defense contract and so enraging President Emmanuel Macron that on Friday he ordered the withdrawal of France’s ambassadors to both nations.
Mr. Macron’s decision was a stunning and unexpected escalation of the breach between Washington and Paris, on a day that the two countries had planned to celebrate an alliance that goes back to the defeat of Britain in the Revolutionary War.
Yet it was driven by France’s realization that two of its closest allies have been negotiating secretly for months….
More…