U.S. Navy Needs to Help Australia Defend Its Waters: Former Navy Secretary
Former U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said the U.S. Navy should provide more help to defend Australia’s waters until it acquires its own nuclear submarines in response to the rising threat from Beijing.
Australia’s Navy is expected to experience a capability gap as the first nuclear submarines under the AUKUS agreement will not be ready for more than a decade.
This means the life of existing aging diesel-powered Collins Class submarines will likely need to be extended.
Spencer suggested the integration of Australian and U.S. Navy crews to patrol Australian territorial waters in U.S. Virginia class submarines….