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bunchesoflunches · 1295 days ago · link ·
- China is now the great power of Asia—or so Beijing believes
Just an aside, but who else would it be?
Anyways.
Austraila and France entered into their deal to buy subs back in 2016. There was reporting back then (AFR) that the subs could be nuclear powered in the end as they selected a nuclear design and had converted it to diesel.
France wiffed on the project. This was bad from the obvious point of view, but also because the new subs were supposed to replace existing ships that were near end of life.
If the end goal is a nuclear sub, their realistic vendors were only ever France, UK, and US. One of those is already tried and failed.
I'm not saying that the deterioration in relations with China isn't a factor, just that it might not be the sole cause.