I see that dunderheaded elite foreign policy drones have been so successful in their ongoing diplomatic efforts they have made the French recall their Ambassador for consultations after some clever dicks got the Australians to pony up the dosh for U.S. nuclear submarines built in Australia in lieu of some cheapo French diesel boats. It takes a rare talent to make the French so angry they throw a hissy fit and stamp their little feet. On the other hand, those cheap diesel boats that were going to be built in France by the French were going to cost the Australians $90,000,000,000. Losing that kind of sale is a poke in the eye for anybody.
Now why would I laugh out loud when I read the news about this? Well, somehow there exists somewhere in America some really clever guy who convinced the powers-that-be in Australia that the U.S. really truly would sell nuclear propulsion technology to another country. The Australians will find themselves out $40 billion dollars on submarine production before some jackass here whips the rug out from under them and tells them they don't have the right clearances to see our nuclear stuff after all. We have proved faithless to all our European allies so it won't come as any surprise to them when this happens but won't the Aussies be surprised.
Another thing I find amusing is the Australian Navy. Right now they can only scrape up enough submariners to crew 3 of their existing 6 submarines. It is really unlikely they'll be able to find many more to crew nuclear powered boats. And then there is the school house that they're going to have to attend here in the U.S. one presumes. It will be interesting to see how we handle giving foreign students U.S. SECRET and TOP SECRET clearances. Not saying it cannot be done, it will just be interesting to see how they contort themselves to do it.
It will also be interesting to see if they throw themselves into designing a new boat or if we simply sell them Virginia class submarines. At any rate, I expect this to be a monumental disaster when all is said and done.
3 comments:
This can only end badly.
i really used to reserve a belly laugh about the concerned nuke protesters missing a good point. nuke plant operators having enough knowledge about nukes to be able to build a nuke out of spare parts. if you can operate a reactor, doing a bomb is just like running up a reactor to criticality, but not trying to slow the neutrons one whit. I would have thought the Angriest Navy would have gone british for a nuke boat; or are the aussies still holding a grudge there....
I would have thought an RN boat would the sub of choice for the RAN.
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