Yes the subs will be a long time coming, a bit of a worry. However it is also going to be a long time before the Chinese, & even together with Russia, will be able to challenge the US, with the little assistance Europe can add.

Sure China has a huge mass of ground troupes, but they don't have the capacity of delivering them anywhere other than China & the immediate environment. Even if they decided to use container ships they have nothing like the capacity to defend them while transporting a land army.

Fortunately it will take them as long to develop such capacity as it is for us to acquire subs.

It is possible that the internal situation in China may require a foreign adventure to assure the leadership survives, in which case they could go off half cocked about Taiwan. That is the real danger for us right now, & our lack of a home grown capacity in liquid fuels leaves us totally defenseless if that eventuated.

It really is time to sit on the ratbag greens to assure our safety.

One doesn't require a military background to think on defence strategies, just a bit of common sense. Because the latter has been outlawed for so long military sense is mere theory these days.
I mean, 6 submarines defending a 40,000km coast line =6700km per sub $50 Billion !
How many Land-coastal-based missile launching facilities could be installed for that amount ?
And, the operators won't need life jackets & in a mishap there won't be any costly & time-consuming searches & rescues. I think the major drawback for that would be that some egotists won't be able to prance around in Christmas tree-like uniforms. The money saved could house tens of thousands of personnel families & normal families living around such facilities in which many would find employment.
I think modern military is all about ego & exploitation of incompetent bureaucrats at working peoples' expense. Oh yeah and, those lucky enough to get to pay with the ultra modern toys don't want to forfeit their cruisey lifestyle either.

I heard the subs won't even be ours, we'll be sharing them with the UK.
The whole thing is THE WORST DEAL EVER, that we can't possibly afford.
If the government is borrowing money, there's going to be a huge increase in inflation.
Everyone will have to pay for it you know.

All to firstly buy second hand nuclear subs that we wont see for 10 years, and upgrade US naval facilities, and the subs we actually will build in the 2040's - 20 years away - we'll be sharing with the UK.
- They wont even be all ours.

Albo is the most useless and reckless INCOMPETENT IDIOT OF A PM EVER.

He's got the brains of Mr Magoo.

Not to mention that we are now in an arms race against our largest trading partner, when we had good relations just a few years ago.

You think Xi isn't going to be talking to Putin about sharing Russian submarine technology?
They'll be signing all sorts of deals now that the west has issued an arrest warrant against him.

"Not to mention that we are now in an arms race against our largest trading partner, when we had good relations just a few years ago."

Now ain't that the bloody truth! Thanks AC.

All said and done, other than having the hide to threaten Americas authority, particularly at an economic level, what have the Chinese actually done to us to warrant the "strong arm" approach. Australia would be safer from conflict if we adopted a neutral policy. Given our post WWII posture with our sycophantic "all the way with LBJ" behaviour its probably too late.

I'm sure Morrison was ordered by Washington to; "ditch the French" at a cost of 5 billion bucks! Australia's military and foreign policy is now totally dictated to us by Washington. Love him or hate him, Whitlam was the only serious attempt at Australia plotting a semi independent course, and look what happen to him.

AC

Who are you quoting this time? Who said that we are in an arms race? Or, is this just your opinion? If it is, why are you using quotation marks?

You are the sites greatest 'quoter', with most of your posts being the popinions of somebody else. What's the difference this time?

You've got 1405 all excited, but he hasn't asked for references as he does with non-Leftists; and now the idiot is accusing Morrison of acting on US instructions to dump the ridiculous French submarine deal foisted on Australia by the Leftist Turnbull. He is "sure of it".

You and 1405 are well suited to each other, with your drip-feed drivel.