The way forward

No doubt there is a real threat in the Asia-Pacific waters. This is fact by the recent AUKUS and QUAD alliances. Australia is a large island country we don't need tanks, rocket launches to protect our nation. We need solid airforce, missle defence systems and a strong Navy to serve as a deterrent for anyone who wishes to change the status quo in the region.

So let's look at our defence:
Airforce - measely 80 planes.
Missile Defence - Nothing in terms Patriot defence systems or S400 missle defence from Russia.
Navy - Some old outdated submarines, outdated frigates on there last legs and Patrol boats. LOL. Oh and 1 or 2 helicopter carriers not aircraft carriers. Wow feeling really safe. Oh we have a contract for some nuclear powered submarines in 2040-2050. Like that's gonna help.

Meanwhile we have a company Austal (an Australian/American Co with Austal US Mobile) who is designing and making navy boats for the best navy in the world being the USA. And yet we don't use this technology. I'm pretty sure if the US is willing to share nuclear power technology they will likely also share any weapon technology as long as Austalia is willing to build it. Why don't we use what we already have in place. No french company, no overseas company but instead a local company with one of the best expertise in the business.

What are we waiting for. Any commissioned frigate will still take 5-8 years until we have at least 3 boats in the water. How much more of a threat does the nation which doesn't need naming need to do before we act? All around Australia we have nations with bigger populations than ours. How can we defend our island nation and act as peace keeper without a limited amount of actual deterrent?

Nobody wants war and no country wants to be submissive to other nations. Sometimes a deterrent is sufficient to keep the bully in check and if comes to war at least we have something decent in the water first that we can build on.