IMHO, $5b of that $25b should go to submarine personnel retention. Now we've gotten rid of the dud sub problem, they're mainly sitting in dock in WA without crews!
There is no way that we'll be getting nuclear subs, not with the current govt. One of Krudds promises was not to build the nuclear power stations which would help ease our reliance on coal and reduce our emissions now that he's signed us up to Kyoto too... He certainly won't go building nuke subs. At the very least we should be leasing 1 or 2, to supplement the conventional fleet. With the steadily growing arms race in SE Asia it'd be nice to have something that can sit unseen for weeks or even months on end to monitor the Indonesians, for example.
Id like to see what exactly they propose for this new fleet... i've read they're intending to put both long and shrt range cruise missiles in its armament as well as AIP. Oughta make it a pretty interesting design - a helluva lot bigger than the current boats!
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