Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
The first three Royal Australian Navy officers have graduated from U.S. Navy nuclear power school. //snip//
This is the first step in the AUKUS plan to provide the RAN with SSNs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AUKUS |
It is not clear to me what boats the Australian Navy intends to buy. The UK Royal Navy Astute class attack boats cost UKP 1.3 billion-plus per boat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astute-class_submarine
The latest Virginia class attack boats (Block V) have been enlarged considerably to accommodate the Virginia class payload module with far more BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles and now exceed 10,000 tons. They run USD 4 billion apeice -- far more expensive than the Astute class. Note that the AUKUS Wikipedia article states that the RAN plans to buy 3-5 (presumably used) Virginia-class SSNs as an interim measure to replace their Collins-class conventional subs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_submarine