Three years ago, in one of the few things I applauded the Biden administration for, it gave the Australian government in Canberra the thumbs-up to acquire its own Virginia-class nuclear submarines.
…After working through the details and in close concert with the British, the answer, as of yesterday, was “You got ’em.”
The U.S., Australia and United Kingdom announced Monday that Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines, making official a decadeslong plan that will require billions of dollars of new investment in the defense industrial base in all three countries.
…To speed up the effort, the U.S. will sell as many as five U.S. Virginia-class submarines to Australia to provide the country with nuclear-powered subs in the 2030s. While some of the subs could be made from scratch, others will be pulled from the fleet of subs in service with the U.S. Navy, officials have said.
This was a very big deal with a very old and close ally.
From Operation Potshot (our son was stationed at Learmonth and lived in Exmouth💝 for 14 months) to this – full circle my friend. I think it’s thrilling.
— tree hugging sister 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) March 14, 2023
Working up to actually having their own big boats was also, obviously, going to be a challenge, but there were plans in the works even then. You can’t take a nuclear submarine and dump it in a slip, and tell them, ‘there you go.’ You have to have crews ready who have hands-on experience – things you learn ‘in the Fleet,’ as we say, that no amount of schooling prepares you for.
The idea was to work on getting that experience two ways – in and out of Australia.
…The U.S. is going to work out the logistics by 2027 to cycle our subs through an Australian naval base so Aussie sailors get used to both the operation and technology involved. This is meant to bring their operational side of the house online quicker while awaiting delivery of their own boats and the necessary facilities construction. For their part, the U.K. is spending $6B to upgrade nuclear facilities, weapon stockpiles, and equipment, including a large chunk “enhancing support for its submarine fleet.”
…Biden outlined steps in the “Optimal Pathway,” beginning with Phase 1, which involves American and British submarines visiting ports in Australia and embedding those sailors into U.S. and U.K. forces and nuclear power schools. Both the U.S. and U.K. already use nuclear propulsion in their submarines, but Australia does not. Starting as early as 2027, the three countries will participate in a rotational submarine force aptly named Submarine Rotational Forces West.
Once enough Australians have been trained and the country has enough infrastructure to house many subs, then it’s on to Phase 2, where Canberra will buy three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. with the option to buy two more if needed. That’ll take place in the 2030s if both U.S. and Australian funding and infrastructure improvements for American shipyards come through.
Since the agreement was signed, there have been a number of Aussie sailors cycling through and embedded with the crews of our boomers, learning the various stages of the ropes as working members of those crews. Much like the old ‘exchange officer’ program, but at every rate necessary for a sub to function.
Under the AUKUS partnership, Australian sailors are now integrating with @USNavy submarines, boosting our defense cooperation and commitment to security in the Indo-Pacific! #AUKUS pic.twitter.com/2g0dEFO91x
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 29, 2025
There are some fifty or so Aussies scattered through the Fleet right now.
What no one could have foreseen at the time was the possibility of a couple of Aussie sailors being in an American submarine as a military operation involving naval ops broke out.
Almost like a real war.
Which is exactly what happened to the Australian sailors aboard the USS Charlotte in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka.
You’ll remember the Charlotte’s encounter with the Iranian frigate Dena I’m thinking, because it was quite memorable. After two warnings that they were going to fire, so abandon ship while they had the chance, the USS Charlotte did exactly as she’d threatened, and turned a torpedo loose.
7th Fleet Los Angeles-class fast-attack sub USS Charlotte (SSN 766) fired the single Mk 48 torpedo that sunk Iranian frigate IRIS Dena (75), @JimLaPorta reports.
One of 30+ Iranian vessels destroyed this week and the first enemy ship sunk by a U.S. sub since WW2. Periscope view: pic.twitter.com/gAGc9I7BjY
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) March 6, 2026
Now, the MK 48 ACAP torpedo the sub used is what lifted the ass-end of the boat out of the water, and that’s exactly what it is designed to do. It’s not a hull-penetrator, it’s a keel buster, running underneath to detonate.
U.S. Navy’s premier 21-inch heavyweight, wire-guided torpedo, designed for deep and shallow water anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. It boasts speeds over 45-55 knots, ranges exceeding 25 nautical miles, and a ~650 lb blast-effect warhead for under-keel explosions
It’s wicked cool, effective, and also part of what running a submarine as a ship of war is all about.
At the beginning of the month, when word got out that there were Aussies aboard the USS Charlotte during the action, the reaction at home was euphoric.
BREAKING NEWS: Two Australian sailors were on board the US attack submarine which sunk the Iranian warship IRIS Dena
I am so unbelievably proud of my country. God bless Australia. Give them a military parade when they get back home. God bless these heroes. pic.twitter.com/iUTwf6Of4k
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) March 5, 2026
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came out that same day during an interview to confirm, in frankly Starmerish language, that yes, three Australians had been on board, didn’t take part (!), and insert mealy-mouthed argle-bargle.
VURT DA FURK
Three Australian Defence Force personnel were among the crew of a US submarine that torpedoed and sank an Iranian vessel in the Indian Ocean, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, while adding that none were involved in operations related to the attack.
The trio were embedded with the US submarine’s crew under long-standing “third country arrangements” and operated in accordance with Australian law and policy, Albanese said Friday in an interview with Sky News.
The exchange is part of the Aukus defense accord between Australia, the UK and US under which ADF personnel receive training and experience on nuclear-powered vessels ahead of Australia taking delivery of Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s.
…“We wouldn’t normally confirm such an issue,” Albanese said, citing National Security Committee discussions and the public interest. “But I can confirm that there were three Australian personnel on board that vessel. I can confirm also, though, that no Australian personnel have participated in any offensive action against Iran.”
…He added that there are conventions to ensure that ADF personnel, when embedded in another nation’s defense assets, “act in accordance with Australian law, with Australian policy, and that, of course, is taking place across the board.”
Albanese on Friday reiterated his government’s support for US strikes on Iran, arguing the Islamic Republic posed a threat on multiple fronts, including its domestic human rights record, nuclear ambitions and long-standing support for proxy groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen.
What the heck was he even saying? Does he have to tell the world that an Australian did not run the targeting sequence or physically punch the ‘Fire!’ button, because, like…who in their right mind would have thought they would be allowed to anyway?
None of this made any sense other than the milquetoast, squeamish placate the Muslim electorate verbiage you get out of any of these liberal Brit types or in their former colonies anymore.
So no one gave a second thought. Like, ‘yeah, okay, suck up, whatever.‘
That is, until yesterday, when former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott spilled the beans. The utterly disgraceful, craven, and cowardly beans.
Australia’s sailors were not at their stations on a ship of war, learning during a combat action what to do on that ship of war.
They had been ordered to their racks by their government.
To sit on their beds until everything was over.
Under AUKUS, Australian sailors are embedded on US submarines to learn how to crew nuclear-powered subs. So when the USS Charlotte torpedoed an Iranian frigate, you’d expect our personnel to be at their stations. Instead, our government ordered them to their bunks. Our people… pic.twitter.com/JOdRu2tBox
— Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) March 16, 2026
…Our people were little more than submarine tourists.
This government suffers from a kind of practical pacifism, where the only circumstances our armed forces might conceivably be permitted to fire a shot in anger is at an enemy actually bombing Darwin.
At some point, the US president who’s supposed to give Australia up to five Virginia class nuclear powered submarines is going to ask why he should divert firepower to a country that won’t use it. Could a country that benches personnel already embarked on a US sub ever be trusted to be at America’s side when it really counts?
SUBMARINE TOURISTS
Sit until there was no more anything resembling aggression toward anything Iranian happening.
HOLY SMOKES
...The whole point of an alliance, as opposed to a protectorate, is that allies are prepared to take risks on each other’s behalf. Allies put their armed forces into combat to support each other, as opposed to simply subcontracting their national security to someone else. It’s precisely because America’s European allies have treated NATO as a protectorate, requiring almost no responsibility from them, that the durability of the world’s greatest alliance in now in doubt. And by opting-out of the Iran war, even Britain and Australia, formerly America’s most reliable brothers-in-arms, have become strategic shirkers, leaving the US to do all the heavy lifting without us.
…Australia says it supports the US action but has not lifted a finger to help. Indeed, by requiring our personnel on the USS Charlotte Los Angeles class submarine to stand down, we may actually have hindered US operations (even if only in a minor way). Imagine the captain being told that three of his crew were now passengers; imagine the Australian personnel facing the humiliation of standing aside from their crew mates’ mission?
I cannot imagine the utter mortification of those sailors being sent to their rooms like children, the second that boat got a chance to do precisely what that boat was designed to do. They are going to crawl around those passageways…unless they stood fast at their stations and the American crew is covering for them.
Which is exactly what I would have done.
Who knows.
The entire idea is so ludicrous that people still cannot believe their government actually did it.
I thought it was a joke till I seen it on sky news.
— Fonzy rock (@fonzy_rock) March 11, 2026
Yeah. Albanese really did.
But in any event, this pathetic exercise in semantic gymnastics and inter-military disgrace on behalf of a pusillanimous Albanese government is one of the most despicable betrayals imaginable – both of the Americans during combat operations on that submarine and the Aussie sailors’ professionalism as members of an Australian Navy I bet they were once proud of.
The cringe has to be off the charts.
This entire episode is so illuminating about our supposed Allies’ hypocrisy, more so than anything I’ve seen so far.
…The Prime Minister said he could “confirm that there were three Australian personnel on board that vessel” but also that “no Australian personnel have participated in any offensive action against Iran”.
That must be simply unbelievable to any Iranian ears and is sure to be raising the eyebrows of our American friends.
The Australian Government’s position is to be firmly supportive of the US and Israeli offensive against Iran, but equally firm in having no involvement in that offensive.
In Washington, hearing these firm but opposite positions must remind them of Bill Clinton’s line on marijuana – he smoked it, but “I didn’t inhale”.
Our US ally will be wondering if Australia can be relied upon to not sideline the folk we are planning to have in much greater numbers in America’s operational submarine fleet under the AUKUS plan.
It’s one thing when the French won’t send a boat.
It’s quite another when someone is already on the boat but has standing orders to go to their rooms.
Unbelievable.
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