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Very Early Days for Aus Nuke Subs: Collins Till 2050s

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Keeping in mind its very early days with the Aus Nuke Subs appearing far into the future - maybe well into the 2040s or 2050s.

At this early stage UK Prime Minister Johnson's official comments "hundreds of highly skilled jobs across the United Kingdom [in presumably marginal UK electorates]" appears to indicate the UK nuke sub industry will provide substantial help to Australia.

If the UK submarine building industry (less efficient than the US) takes the main running then my best current guesses are:

Australia will eventually have 8 follow ons to the relatively slow UK Astute SSNs with a  new feature of 2 US invented Vertical Launch Systems (VLS) with an all up total of 14 Tomahawk Anti-ship/Land-attack missiles. 

Other US features (Combat System, other weapons, UK variant of a US reactor) will go into this Hybrid US-UK Aus Nuke Sub. By the time Adelaide Hybrids are "ready" they will be the most costly SSNs ever built - more expensive than the US Seawolf-class.

Collins Until the 2050s

From now until the 2050s, Australia will rely on increasingly old Collins diesel-electric subs. The 6 Collins subs will consecutively be undergoing their mid-life upgrade, in Adelaide naturally (for 2 years minimum at AU$2 Billion each (or more)) in a process known as the Life of Type Extension (LOTE).  


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