Australia awards BAE & ASC first SSN-AUKUS Contract

This is totally expected, as they are the only submarine builders in the UK and Australia, and Pete has commented on this award in his own article.  

My own opinion is that Australia, after investing US$3 billion in the US submarine industrial base, is not likely to receive new-build Virginia-class submarines. Although, by the 2030s, 30 year old Virginia Block 1s [a subclass of just 4 boats commissioned 2004-2008] are highly likely (and Australia will also have to pay for their Mid Life Update). [The Block 1s suffer from only having 12 x single Tomahawk sized VLS (see right sidebar). They would need to be reconstructed at huge extra expense to incorporate 2 x large multipurpose Virginia Payload Tubes (VPTs) that could take larger, more potent, hypersonic missiles, to deter China.]

A more viable option could be to speed up the delivery of SSN-AUKUS, from the 2040s to the mid-2030s. This can be done by expanding the production infrastructure at ASC and by starting industrial training early (first 100 welders being sent to Hawaii next year). 

According to ASC, only 1% of all the welds on the Collins-class, from 1987 to 2003, were found to be defective. So ASC could start producing hull sections for all the SSN-AUKUS boats (Australian and UK), for example the rear-half, and send them to Barrow to assemble and build the UK boats. This would speed up production efficiencies for both navies.