Retired rear admiral Peter Briggs, who led the navy’s submarine squadron, told a national security conference organised by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull that AUKUS was a “wasteful folly” that needed to be jettisoned as soon as possible.

“We’re facing the loss of a submarine capability,” Briggs said on Friday in Canberra.

“It is never too late to stop a plan that is not going to bloody well work, and it is not going to work...We are heading for a train smash.”

Briggs, who had a 40-year career in the navy, said the US navy would have “nowhere near the number of submarines they need” in the early 2030s to provide Australia with the three Virginia-class attack submarines envisaged under the AUKUS plan.

“There will be no surplus Virginias in 2031-2032 despite all the best efforts going on,” he said.

Briggs said that, because of notoriously slow production rates in American shipyards, the US would only have around 49 attack submarines available in 2032, far fewer than the 66 it says it requires for its own needs.

Donald Trump’s America First agenda has challenged the US-Australia alliance by imposing tariffs, demanding greater defence spending and probing the AUKUS submarine pact.
AnalysisAUKUS

“The president of the day has to certify that there will be no reduction in capability,” he said. “If you’re going to sell Australia three [of your] frontline submarines, I don’t see how it is possible for the US president of the day to make that certification.”

Briggs said Australia also had to confront the likelihood that SSN-AUKUS - a new class of submarine Australia plans to build with the United Kingdom - will fall behind schedule because of backlogs in the “hollowed out” British submarine service.

“We need some political courage,” Briggs said, urging the Albanese government to pursue an alternative to AUKUS.

He said Australia needs at least 10 nimble submarines, rather than the eight large vessels planned under AUKUS.

The SSN-AUKUS, currently under design, is intended to enter service with the UK in the late 2030s and Australia in the early 2040s.

Briggs has previously called for Australia to seek to acquire a fleet of Suffren-class nuclear-powered submarines from French builder Naval Group instead of sticking to the AUKUS plan.

Retired British rear admiral Philip Mathias told this masthead earlier this year that “there is a high probability that the UK element of AUKUS will fail”.

Mathias said: “It is clear that Australia has shown a great deal of naivety and did not conduct sufficient due diligence on the parlous state of the UK’s nuclear submarine program before signing up to AUKUS – and parting with billions of dollars, which it has already started to do.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/headed-for-a-train-smash-former-commander-s-dire-aukus-warning-20260327-p5zj9a.html

This from a bloke who couldn't even submariner numbers up. ::)

The idiots have overrun Ozpol in panic, delusion and women & children last

He was my old CO on Otway.  Every day, without fail, he would start officer of the watch drills when it was mealtimes.  I ended up with all 3 courses of a meal (coffee, desert and some creation the cook came up with that was mainly salt water boiled cabbage) in the lap of my overalls because he thought it was great to do angles and dangles, emergency recovery drills and the rest.  Strange man  great submariner, but strange

Don't you just like Superiors who needs to make something from nothing, because they make nothing when something actually happens.

Where's the money coming from?.   :(

whiteknight wrote on Mar 28^th, 2026 at 7:58am:

Where's the money coming from?.   :(

Mercantile Credits 💳

Revenue from the gas exports    /s

Another advocate for Steam submarines; there ain’t no such thing as a Nuclear Powered Submarine.

Sir Eoin O Fada wrote on Mar 28^th, 2026 at 11:24am:

Another advocate for Steam submarines; there ain’t no such thing as a Nuclear Powered Submarine.

If you believe that then there are no coal fired power stations either.

Sir Eoin O Fada wrote on Mar 28^th, 2026 at 11:24am:

Another advocate for Steam submarines; there ain’t no such thing as a Nuclear Powered Submarine.

Nuclear power heats the steam.   ::)

The simple fact is that we cannot adequately patrol our vast coastline or project power in times of conflict with diesel electric submarines. We need nuclear powered submarines due to the sheer size of our sea territory. It might be different if we were Japan or a European country, but we are a massive island nation that is almost completely dependent on trade by sea. We should have acquired nuclear submarines when we first got the Collins class.

With the majority of Sydney now Chinese.
The CCP can now do a Russia in Ukraine and move their forces into Sydney to liberate it's people for an independent city state with red flags.

Chances are, the rest of Australia couldn't muster up enough opposition against it. Sydney becomes New Shanghai('d).

Then the Africans can rise up like a BLM in Melbourne and call it Mogadishu 2.(too)

Biggest donger wrote on Mar 28^th, 2026 at 11:27am:

Sir Eoin O Fada wrote on Mar 28th, 2026 at 11:24am: Another advocate for Steam submarines; there ain’t no such thing as a Nuclear Powered Submarine. If you believe that then there are no coal fired power stations either.

There are coal fired power stations just as there are uranium’’fired’’ submarines, but both are steam powered, the so called ‘’Nuclear powered’’ submarines, or any other so called Nuclear Powered facility that requires rotary machinery is useless without steam power.
The reactor boils the water, there is nothing else that it can do, except possibly explode or just contaminate.

The infamous British ‘K’ Class submarines were known as steam powered, they were not called Oil Powered Submarines after their fuel.

Absolutely insane. For 1 % of the cost we could have 100 un manned, small drone subs parked on the ocean floor all over the pacific with a warhead and we could activate them at will from a laptop in Sydney.
That's the future of subs.

We have no secure energy, no secure fuel, diesel, no merchant navy, no reliable overseas suppliers, no nuclear power stations, no nuclear technology and engineering capacity, no maintenance and supply capacity - but we will have nuclear submarined in 15 years.


Australia's naive folly goes on and on and on.

Australia is a rich but totally unserious country.

americans are greedy violent lying amoral corrupt thieves.

should have nothing to do with them

Sprintcyclist wrote on Mar 31^st, 2026 at 5:31am:

americans are greedy violent lying amoral corrupt thieves. should have nothing to do with them

Obama, Biden, Hillary, Kackela?? :o :o :o

Sprintcyclist wrote on Mar 31^st, 2026 at 5:31am:

americans are greedy violent lying amoral corrupt thieves. should have nothing to do with them

Yes. Thank god Trump is trying to change that and make America a nation that we can feel comfortable allying with.

Certainly Trump has brought morality to business and electoral activity. He has almost no jail time and is honourable in acquiring Venezuala, Gaza, Greenland and now Iran.  Thank goodness we can see he has the idea of honour among thieves. He has Jasin in his grip.

aquascoot wrote on Mar 30^th, 2026 at 8:45pm:

Absolutely insane. For 1 % of the cost we could have 100 un manned, small drone subs parked on the ocean floor all over the pacific with a warhead and we could activate them at will from a laptop in Sydney. That's the future of subs.

No you can't, because no signal would reach that deep.

When the Ragnarok project starts Aukus subs will be better bet then land based bunkers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzEWpKKOZs

Armchair_Politician wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2026 at 11:02am:

No you can't, because no signal would reach that deep.

Prolly the drone can be programmed to surface at a specific location for sat data, and the next cycle.
' spot beams or optical laser communications, provides significantly higher throughput, better security, and lower latency [time-lag] compared to traditional, broad-coverage satellite beams'

Sprintcyclist wrote on Mar 31^st, 2026 at 5:31am:

americans are greedy violent lying amoral corrupt thieves. should have nothing to do with them

Yes. Before Trump, their reputation was abhorrent