The Australian government has sought to assure south-east Asian and Pacific countries that its nuclear-powered submarine plan
Asked how he would explain the project to Beijing, Mr Albanese said Australia could build its defence capabilities and improve its relationships with other countries in the region, including China, at the same time.
“What I say is we’re investing in capability as we should, but we’re also investing in relationships as we are. It is not a contradictory position. It’s a consistent position,” he said.
Not a binary choice’
Leaks out of the UK and the US this week have started to point to the outlines of a deal that will be officially announced in San Diego on Monday, US time.
CNC has reported the long-term Aukus plan would likely involve a British submarine design with heavy use of American technology – an outcome also reported by Bloomberg.
But that does not preclude a US interim solution to plug a potential capability gap caused by the retirement of Australia’s existing Collins class conventional submarines from the late 2030s.
The speed of procuring a first strike defence asset has been underscored by the Prime Minister “We need to ensure that Australia’s defence assets are the best they can be. And that we build our capability. At the same time, we need to build relationships. That’s what I’ve been doing," Albanese said.
“I’ve been doing that here in India, we’re doing that throughout the Indo-Pacific, we’ve done that (and) improved our relationship with China in recent times as well.”
Albanese confirmed he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had discussed the details of the submarine agreement and said briefings with other countries were “taking place as appropriate”.
Beijing responded to the reports with a warning from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, who said the deal posed “serious nuclear proliferation risks” and would undermine peace and stability in the region.
We urge the United States, the UK and Australia to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, faithfully fulfil their international obligations and do things that contribute to regional peace and stability,” she said.
The submarines Australia is expected to acquire, known as the SSNR, are in the design phase, and it will be years before they are operational.
China leading AI, Navy Combat Technology
On the other side of the Pacific, China has demonstrated not only boasting development of the largest Naval fleet, but also the most technologically advanced.
China's Ship Design and Research Centre said the AI perfectly navigated more than 400 challenging design tasks, prompting leading senior engineer Luo Wei to declare the programme was 'ready for engineering applications' in China's shipbuilding industry to boost the speed of warship manufacturing.
The shocking news comes just weeks after the US Secretary of the Navy warned that China's naval fleet has surpassed America's in terms of sheer size and is growing faster than US manufacturers have the capacity to match.
Can policy keep up with ambition?
Australia's Naval commitment is on course to long awaited improvement on Defense modernisation and investment in next generation electronic warfare computing. It has become an all embracing National commitment which is geared to shift the middle power posture into a higher order.
This is a long awaited implementation of AUKUS. A strategy, designed by the previous government and delivered by Albanese as head of State with Marles as Defense Minister. The results ought to recalibrate the power deterrence capabilities in the Pacific. The question remains how's the years of complacency come to wider gap, technology and speed of deployment.
The Navy arms race is led by China leveraging advanced technology with artificial intelligence.
It was reported in February the research team funded by the Chinese military says they used artificial intelligence to design the electrical layout of a warship with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
It took the AI designer about a day to complete work that took humans, using the most advanced computer tools available, 300 times longer – or nearly a year, according to the team from the China Ship
Chinese defence ministry announced the development of unmanned "Naval stealth drone." A 200 ton-class unmanned surface vessel, characterized by its capabilities in stealth and far sea operation, wrapped up its first autonomous sea trial meet mid 2022.
In Stark contrast the track record in delivering large scale Naval project is not the best - It has always been a challenge, the current program to receive and deliver three Virginia-class submarines may still take up to 7 to 10+ years to realise, ongoing programs until 2040. There is no line of sight to a fix delivery date. With billions required to upgrade Perth Naval base and the Osborne shipyards in Adelaide.
The three party nation program will expand the political and bureaucratic complexity in managing the timelines administration and deliverables of not one,. but several submarine projects.
On Thursday 9th of March, Defence Minister and Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles told parliament the submarine program would be “a massive industrial endeavour” that would create thousands of jobs and lift the nation’s technological capacity.
Unless the purchase announcement this month comes with more unexpected short term defence implementation, the Australia's Navy is no contest in the Pacific against China for the remainder of this decade..
Unlocking Australia’s growth potential is the essential mechanism for the Albanese government to deliver on the AUKUS commitments that will shape our strategic and industrial policies across the next 40 years. The Labor Party has now imposed upon itself a series of ambitions that will shape this period of history – the technological upgrade to nuclear-powered submarines, the recasting of our economy given the massive renewable investment needed to achieve its 2030 clean energy transition and the essential shift to a sustainable fiscal position.
