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On a training exercise from its home port in Guam, USS Minnesota is a forerunner to four Virginia class submarines that will be hosted at a Western Australian naval base from 2027, under the AUKUS partnership to transfer nuclear submarine capability to Australia. Commanding officer Jeffrey Corneille says the Virginia class submarine is “the most advanced warship in the world.” “If someone wakes up and they say ‘Is today the day?’, we make sure that they say ‘Maybe not’,” he says, describing its deterrent role. Around 50-80 United States navy personnel will arrive by the middle of the year at...

Australia is preparing for war in order to avoid it. Their historic new increase in defense spending and China’s dependence on them for iron ore make them an important ally. Australia’s defense funding for 2024 will be $35 billion USD, just over 2% of their GDP, and up from $20 billion in 2021. They’ve signed a new trilateral security agreement with the United States and United Kingdom that will give the Australian Navy a new weapon that only 6 other nations in the entire world have. Major upgrades are being made to their northern army, air and naval bases. But...

The U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom, members of the AUKUS partnership, are considering cooperation with Japan on advanced capabilities projects. An aim of AUKUS is identifying the optimal pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability, as well as cooperation on a range of other advanced defense technologies. Japan is being considered because of its strengths and its close defense partnership with all three countries, said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, who held a press conference today. Singh noted that this was announced in a joint statement by the three nation's defense leaders: Secretary of Defense...

The US Congress has passed legislation allowing the country to sell Virginia class submarines to Australia under the Aukus security pact. Sweeping legislation covering a wide range of military priorities including Aukus passed the US House of Representatives on Thursday Washington time, a day after it cleared the Senate. The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said Australians could “have a sense of confidence about this multi-decade arrangement actually coming to pass” because of the strong bipartisan votes in the US Congress. “We are on the precipice of historic reform that will transform our ability to effectively deter, innovate, and operate...

Earlier in the week, we were all treated to the announcement of a new and improved trilateral security pact between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia (called AUKUS). The most memorable thing about the announcement (read Sister Toldjah’s post, Watch: Biden Makes International Headlines for Embarrassing Reason After Awkward Moment With Aussie PM) was Joey Soft Serve forgetting the name of the Australian prime minister.Despite the placid, if short-bus-ish ambiance of the announcement, there was drama brewing out of sight.Biden announced that the United States would allow nuclear submarine technology transfer to Australia. This is significant. It would make...

Thousands of American soldiers trained to use Surface-to-Air missile systems, High Mobility Artillery Rockets and unmanned aircraft are bound for Australia as tensions over China grow. The rotational US Marine force will be comprised of about 2200 servicemen and women based in the Northern territory during the upcoming dry season from September. It is the 11th deployment to the Top End and for the first time will include 250 US Army personnel, the Australian Defence Force announced. The contingent is part of an ongoing US posture initiative to promote stability in the Indo-Pacific region with fears Beijing could be plotting...

President Biden on Friday apologetically told French President Emmanuel Macron that he was “clumsy” in blindsiding France with a nuclear submarine pact among the US, the UK and Australia. “What happened was, to use an English phrase — what we did was clumsy. It was not done with a lot of grace,” Biden said as he met with Macron during the G20 summit in Rome. “I was under the impression that certain things had happened that hadn’t happened,” Biden claimed. “I was under the impression that France had been informed long before. “I honest to God did not know you...

A stunning admission from an administration insider that the President of The United States is clueless and out of touch on some of the most important strategic issues of the day was delivered to a French television audience by former Secretary of State and current presidential special envoy for climate John F. Kerry.p>Last month, France recalled its ambassador to the United States in reaction to the secret negotiation of military alliance called AUKUS (Australia, UK and US) that resulted in cancellation of a gigantic (estimates as high as $66 billion) contract for Australia to buy French diesel submarines (to be...

The tussle between the US and China seeks a formal garb after the AUKUS was formed, and now the US wants more micro engagements in the region The United States is fully engaged in shifting its unsuccessful strategic workshop from Afghanistan to the East. That is what Joe Biden implied in his justification behind the withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan during the first week of this month. Followed by this statement, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Southeast Asia, an indication that the US was now permanently seeking serious engagement in the East against rapidly increasing Chinese belligerence. The...

Hong Kong(CNN)Forget France, AUKUS and nuclear-powered submarines -- one of the most important moments for the future of US influence in Asia is due to take place on Friday in Washington.

The United States would achieve three objectives by purchasing a number of Shortfin Barracuda submarines from France and then giving them to Vietnam. First, the Biden administration would repair relations with America's oldest ally. Second, it would supply a rising security partner with newly potent means of challenging China's imperialism. Third, it would test President Emmanuel Macron's commitment to international security in the South China Sea. This option bears note as France rages over Australia's cancellation of a submarine contract worth tens of billions of dollars. France is mixing justifiable anger (it has lost a lucrative contract worth thousands of...

Maintaining unity between Western allies will "require a lot of effort" in light of an unfolding rift between France and members of a new security partnership, Germany's ambassador to the UK has said. French President Emmanuel Macron has so far not commented directly, but on Friday a top French diplomat spoke anonymously of a "crisis" in relations with the US. He said that for Paris "this is a strategic question concerning the very nature of the relationship between Europe and the United States about the Indo-Pacific strategy". He added that Australia never mentioned to France its wish to shift to...

A newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party says that Australia is now “a potential target for a nuclear strike” after launching the AUKUS pact with the US and UK to build nuclear-powered submarines. The Global Times, which is controlled by the party, issued the warning as the trilateral security deal — set up to counter China — caused outrage in France, which was not invited to participate, and unease in New Zealand, which opposes nuclear energy. The propaganda outlet published an article titled, “Nuke sub deal could make Australia potential nuclear war target.” The article said: “Chinese military experts...

When Scott Morrison met with Joe Biden and Boris Johnson at the G7 Summit earlier this year, it seemed like any other stock-standard diplomatic engagement - but there was much more going on below the surface. The Prime Minister had been working in secret for nearly two years with a group of advisors to secure a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, allowing Australia to push back against an increasingly aggressive China. The plan is thought to have been hatched as early as August 2019, with Mr Morrison asking a team of scientists, Navy top brass, engineers and other experts to look...

France cancels DC gala in anger over Biden sub deal: report © SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images French officials on Thursday canceled a gala at the country’s Washington D.C. embassy over the Biden administration’s decision to scrap a $40 billion nuclear submarine deal that the European nation had signed with Australia, The New York Times reported. The U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom on Wednesday announced a new trilateral security partnership in the Indo-Pacific, with the three planning to launch an 18-month review exploring how Australia could best acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

China on Thursday expressed outrage at a new security pact between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S., blasting what it considers a new Western provocation and singling out Australian troops as the first to die as a result of "Beijing's countermeasures so as to send a warning to others." "Australia has turned itself into an adversary of China," China's English-language Global Times, considered a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, proclaimed in an editorial Thursday morning. "If Australia dares to provoke China more blatantly," it added, "or even find fault militarily, China will certainly punish it with no mercy." The...