According to the Global Times, because Australia cannot independently produce nuclear submarines, in order to make up for its shortcomings as soon as possible, it proposed to the United States to purchase 3 to 5 attack nuclear submarines, learn from them and use this as a transition to get closer to the world's military powers as soon as possible. This may seem like a big list of good profits, but for American shipyards, it is a bitter story.
The United States and Australia cooperate again
Recently, the global hegemon United States, together with Australia and the United Kingdom, jointly released a news to the effect that Australia, as one of the "Orcus" allies, does not have the ability to produce nuclear submarines itself, and the United States will help Australia have this capability in the next two decades or so. At the request of the Australian side, it is planned to provide a total of 3 to 5 Virginia-class attack nuclear submarines in the next decade or so, either used or brand-new. Due to urgent needs, Australia does not impose itself on this, and hopes to learn from this and serve as a transition in its nuclear armaments, so as to master the military capability to produce nuclear submarines independently as soon as possible and enter the ranks of nuclear military powers at an early date.
Australia has issued a large order to the United States to manufacture nuclear submarines this time, firstly, it wants to make up for the shortcomings of its inability to manufacture nuclear submarines on its own as soon as possible, and secondly, it can take this opportunity to reach a closer cooperative relationship with the United States and continue to move closer to the United States. The order looks profitable, and Australia is full of sincerity. But for American shipyards, it is powerless. Because of their own production capacity, they cannot even meet the needs of the United States itself, so how can there be excess production capacity to deliver the nuclear submarines required by the Australian side on schedule?
The U.S. shipbuilding industry is not up to the task
The Global Times reported that the speed of building nuclear submarines by American shipyards in recent years has been extremely slow, even if they work together, less than two nuclear submarines are delivered to the US military every year, despite this, the US military still requires US shipyards to deliver two attack nuclear submarines and one strategic nuclear submarine to the US Navy every year, which makes American shipyards have a big headache and misery, not to mention building several nuclear submarines for Australia.
In fact, the shortage of nuclear submarine production capacity has historical reasons, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the last century, when the United States because of the international situation and its own reasons, on the one hand, to spend a huge amount of military expenditure, on the other hand, it no longer needs a large number of nuclear submarines, so the production capacity of nuclear submarines will be greatly reduced, and a small number of production will be carried out. After a long time, the production capacity has been slightly increased, and it is only the construction speed of one ship a year. In recent years, due to the new crown epidemic and human factors, none of them have been manufactured.
According to the observation network, US shipyards not only have insufficient capacity to manufacture nuclear submarines, but also their production capacity to manufacture destroyers cannot meet the needs of the US Navy. Because of the shortage of industrial workers and the shortage of material suppliers, the average year is less than two destroyers, while the US military requires the delivery of three destroyers a year, which makes the US shipbuilding industry even worse and more stressed.
The current situation at American shipyards is that they cannot even supply the US Navy's own needs, let alone fulfill orders from Australia. In order to solve the problem of the current serious shortage of production capacity of American shipyards, it is necessary to make a large investment in the US shipbuilding industry, expand and upgrade the scale, and greatly increase production capacity. If Australia wants to achieve its own goals, it can only pay in full at the request of the United States and pay for it in advance.