Submarines, nuclear or otherwise, are obsolete

September 1, 2025

Expensive manned submarines are a relic of past world (meaning European) wars! Just like aircraft carriers, infantry wars and manned aircraft.

If the special military operation in Ukraine and the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank  have taught our military leaders anything — and that is questionable — it is that the fundamental nature of war has changed. UAVs, accurately guided missiles and bombs, along with accurate detection of underwater threats and use of underwater unmanned drones using AI and quantum computing, have dramatically cheapened the fighting of wars and have increased its lethality substantially.

That means a dramatic increase in the capacity of smaller or more targeted countries to defend themselves against hegemonic powers whose leaders are still fighting World Wra II with massively expensive and far more fragile technologies. Good examples are the success of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in successfully fighting the most heavily armed major powers in history. And they are doing it with vastly less expensive hardware!

The AUKUS subs are the most expensive farrago in an Australian military history littered with such failures. They will strip out Australia’s progress in meeting the needs of our citizens with no gain in security!