Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Australia Needs Asymmetric Capabilities to Counter China in Indo-Pacific, Former Australian Official Says


Australian political leaders have refocused Canberra’s attention on developing more asymmetric capabilities necessary to fighting a war far from its shores against “high-end competitor” China, a former senior national security adviser to its foreign minister said Tuesday.

John Lee, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, described the security situation regarding Taiwan and in northeast Asia “a lot bleaker” than they were five years ago when, for the first time, maritime concerns dominated an Australian defense white paper.

He added it was “not unrealistic to have a conflict” over self-governing Taiwan in five or six years and any war there would not be confined to the island. China regards the island as a province and has been escalating tensions over its future to include threats of invasion.

Later, Lee said that China, despite its air and immediate naval superiority over Taiwan, “can’t land troops there at an acceptable cost” right now.

Continues at - https://news.usni.org/2021/11/26/austra ... HT6VPX9ACA

RAN divers from HMAS Penguin pictured coming ashore at Balmoral Beach, Sydney in 1949.

Excellent in-depth analysis by Australian Strategic Policy Institute of the challenges involved in acquiring SSNs for the Australian Navy:

Implementing Australia’s nuclear submarine program


Executive summary
On 16 September 2021, the Australian Government announced that it would acquire a nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) capability with support from the UK and the US as the first measure of business under the AUKUS technology sharing partnership. At the same time, it announced that it had established the Nuclear-Powered Submarine Taskforce, which would devote 18 months to determining the ‘optimal pathway’ to establishing this new capability.

The taskforce has its work cut out for it, and the signing of an initial nuclear information sharing agreement only two months after AUKUS was announced suggests things are moving fast. Nevertheless this new enterprise will be a massive undertaking and probably the largest and most complex endeavour Australia has embarked upon. The challenges, costs and risks will be enormous. It’s likely to be at least two decades and tens of billions of dollars in sunk costs before Australia has a useful nuclear-powered military capability.

Many commentators have suggested that the work of the taskforce is primarily about making a recommendation on the choice of submarine—either the US Virginia class or the UK Astute class. That’s misleading on two counts. First, the most important decision isn’t so much about the submarine, but about the strategic partner most able to work with us on our new SSN capability. Second, Australia will need to make many choices—about the strategic partner, about the submarine design, about the build strategy, about schedule, and more. Those choices will involve hard prioritisation decisions about what’s most important. Is it capability, schedule, Australian industry content, or something else?

This report examines the decision space available to the government.

Continues at - https://www.aspi.org.au/report/implemen ... ne-program

Australia Wants to Buy U.S. Nuclear Powered Submarine


Let’s assume the government is willing to toss its Naval Shipbuilding Plan out the window and that the US is willing to sell us Virginia class boats off-the-shelf from US shipyards. What would it cost?
Here's What to Remember: The future submarine program estimate also includes design costs. But again, that’s not included in the Virginia’s US$3.25 billion cost per boat. What share of the Virginia program’s design costs would the US pass on to us? Even if it waived historical design costs, what share of the design of enhancements and upgrades to future batches of Virginias would we pay over the build process?
The conversation about acquiring nuclear-powered submarines here in Australia continues to bubble along.

Continues at - https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboo ... ine-199678

Link from Tim.

Navy Lookout

Australian P-8A Poseidon was subject to laser illumination by Chinese warships. Descibed as “a serious safety incident" off north coast of Australia 17/2/22

See - https://twitter.com/NavyLookout/status/ ... 2138820610
And - https://news.defence.gov.au/media/media ... f-aircraft

HMAS Canberra arrives in Tonga
See - https://news.defence.gov.au/internation ... ives-tonga

Australia to Unveil More Nuclear Submarine Plans Within Months


Australia expects to soon announce more specifics of a plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines under a security partnership with the U.S. and U.K., Defense Minister Peter Dutton said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison in September announced the new defense alliance and moved to scrap a deal struck in 2016 with French shipbuilder Naval Group to build as many as 12 diesel-powered vessels, a project that had blown out to an estimated A$90 billion ($66 billion).

See- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -8xleUnB5Q

Lead Ship, Replenishment Oiler HMAS Supply.

Chinese Warships, Fighter Jets Heading To Australia’s Backyard ‘In Weeks’ As Beijing Projects Power In Southern Pacific — Reports

A leak of the security pact between China and the Pacific state of Solomon Islands has taken Australia by storm. Located close to Australia in the Southern Pacific, the leaked document raises concerns about the Chinese military gaining an upper hand in the region bypassing any resistance from Canberra.

After days of making desperate diplomatic overtures in the region against the deal, Australia was left ‘disappointed’ as the signing of the agreement was announced earlier this week.

On April 19, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced the agreement in Beijing, adding that China would work with Honiara to preserve social order, defend people’s safety, provide aid, combat natural catastrophes, and help safeguard national security, ABC News had reported.

Despite Solomon Islands’ assurances to Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific countries that it would not allow China to create a military facility on its soil, security experts are concerned that China could deploy its men and material before Australia’s federal elections next month.

Continues at - https://eurasiantimes.com/chinese-warsh ... -in-weeks/

Note links at end of article to other information.

Courtesy of George Hicks from Drydocks and Dockyards of the World...31May2022, sailing past the Garden Island Dockyard and Naval Base onboard the P&O Cruise Ship Pacific Explorer. The first cruise ship to depart Sydney, post COVID. A four day cruise to Brisbane and return.