You are - the clown. LOL, refugee boats pulling up into Australian harbours, or our shores, unsighted - unknown and unstopped. Not that long ago. As if we could spot a Chinese rust-bucket sub. Our admirals couldn't find their dicks in the dark. And just for informational purposes, rather than humiliation - the current Chinese SLBM's have a range of 7200 km. The latest JL-3's are good for 9000km and have likely started production by now. You were saying. Furthermore, we are currently pissing away $90 billion - add $30 million a day - for French laziness and inflation - on a dozen French subs that we will likely never ever see. The superior Japanese Soryu could have been done at a third of that price. The Japanese have now deployed, first one was 2019, the lithium-ion submarine we could have bought. They use a mix of US and Japanese weapons systems and comms. They cost less than a billion AUD for their examples. No matter what we wanted for mods - they would be under $3 bil AUD each delivered, with early ones made in Japan - like a good Toyota. Our government during the contract negotiations wanted more Australian production done is SA. The French were happy to say yes and provide election critical 'earlier' SA jobs. The French have since reneged on some of the Australian production quota and the timeline. We are never going to see them and will piss $20-30 billion down the hole - before the Federal government realises in 5-10 years - they've been stupidly rogered, and rogered with barbed wire. Don't get me started on the F-35.
