Yes. Thank you.
Ready- discuss.
The AUKUS agreement is a priority, as nations look to strengthen deterrence in the face of Chinese efforts to undermine the rules-based international order that has done so much for peace in the
www.defense.gov
The SSN piece is the main driver for the agreement, but it's potentially a pretty big deal.
We kinda need to face the reality we are not the sole manufacturing powerhouse of the world. This isn't WW2, and in any scenario involving China, that just isn't a model that will work (we crush the PRC in a flood of metal). It's not a problem where just throwing money at it will actually help (in any realistic manner anyway)
Between the Aussies and the UK, we all have the potential to level load certain defense items across our industries to help get more optimal results. Fundamentally, it's economic specialization. We don't all need to develop different missiles, EW pods, or whatever that do the exact same thing.
Partnering with them would also let us pool their smart people with ours. There are so many engineers out there who are smart on things like hypersonics, radars/EW, or whatever - AND can get the appropriate clearances.
Ironically, the Aussies have the opposite problem that our defense industrial sectors has had. Maintaining continuous demand for production from just the ADF is challenging, so they tend to either have more capacity, or they have to stop/start shipyards. We have plenty of demand, but are constrained by domestic capacity.