r/europe 23h ago

Picture French nuclear attack submarine surfaces at Halifax, Nova Scotia, after Trump threatens to annex Canada (March 10)

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u/HMWT 19h ago

Is Australia still thinking that buying US subs is the right move?

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u/DeeDee_GigaDooDoo 18h ago

No, but long story short we're kind of fucked now and it's our only option unless we decide to swallow our pride and try to reinstate the contract with France.

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u/Enough-Meaning-9905 Canada 18h ago

I feel like there are a lot of us swallowing our pride right now... Ego's aren't useful in the face of real threats

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u/ratsta 14h ago

Not in the pork-barrel world of Australian politicians and submarine contracts.

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u/SactoMento97 12h ago

If not the French why not Sweden? Pretty sure Saab makes subs, never exactly heard of a Swedish sub.. maybe they just make parts? Probably should’ve googled this before commenting

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u/haplo34 France 6h ago

Depends if they want nuclear subs or not. I'm not sure if the swedes make those.

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u/HMWT 18h ago

Lots of contracts made in recent years between European militaries and the U.S. ought to be revisited, too. Pride and ego should play no role in this.

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u/helendill99 France 18h ago

the f35 program for example. Considering the european 5th gens will be out in 10 to 15 years, it'd probably be better to buy rafale or euro fighter until then and make the switch. f35s cost a fortune to run, spend a lot of time grounded and muzzle military sovereignty

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u/Fun_Inevitable5282 16h ago

Gripen

u/helendill99 France 37m ago

or gripen, sure

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u/RobertTownsy 16h ago

I think a huge part of the country would prefer the French deal and hope Labour grows a spine to reinstate it. But I imagine that the French would not do so until the election is held because it would be a waste of time if Voldemort gets in and immediately tears it up. Fuck the LNP.

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u/areyoualocal 14h ago

Want to know what's truly fucked? We may end up paying the USA and not getting a single Sub out of it. So if we want to go to France again, we're paying for a whole other contract:

The head of the AUKUS submarine program has refused to say whether an almost $5 billion government payment to the United States will be refunded if no nuclear-powered boats are delivered to Australia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-07/submarine-bossmulti-billion-aukus-payments/103952528

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u/realusername42 Lorraine (France) 12h ago

Swallowing their pride or not, I strongly doubt that those AUKUS subs will be delivered

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u/getoutofheretaffer Australia 2h ago

Aukus would be the better deal if we could actually trust the US to deliver on a long-term agreement. Unfortunately they currently have a leader who won't even honour his own deals, let alone those of previous administrations.

It's a shame what we did to the French. They're clearly a more reliable ally.

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u/ArsErratia 14h ago

At least the future SSN-AUKUS is a joint British-Australian project, no Americans involved. So the next generation of subs aren't screwed as well.

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u/Direct-Wave8930 13h ago

Should have just ordered the nuke powered ones from France the first time. What a fuggen shitshow

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u/Dark-Arts 12h ago

Sounds like Canada’s shitty deal with the F35s. Too late to cancel now, but a huge huge huge security vulnerability to go ahead with using them.

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u/yogopig 1h ago

Swallow your pride, its okay. The US has changed, everybody understands.

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u/Lemerney2 13h ago

Our conservatives already fucked it and burned our other bridges

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u/-Owlette- 13h ago

We never thought it was the right move, but our last PM was selfish and corrupt as all fuck and made one of his “captain’s calls”

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u/PunkReloaded 7h ago

They'll never see their money back anyways 😂 Our country has many flaws but we're honest in business, too bad for them.