![]() ![]() As highly stealthy platforms, SSNs’ ability to operate in contested waters, hunt Chinese warships and submarines, control strategic sea lanes and chokepoints, and project power with long-range cruise missiles make them one of the most effective ways to complicate Chinese military planning and give Beijing a reason to take pause before using force. The composition of SRF-West will do a lot to strengthen collective deterrence. It’s also an incredibly rapid buildup, especially considering that it’s taken the United States over five years to grow the number of SSNs in Guam by just two boats. Doubling these numbers from five to ten over the next eight years is not only a major boost of a top-tier military capability. Placing more attack submarines west of the dateline has long been a priority for U.S. It’s possible that by 2039-before Australia’s first AUKUS SSN is even in the water-there’ll be twenty-five allied SSNs on permanent or rotational deployment in Hawaii, Guam, and Perth. Were Australia’s Virginia-class submarines to join it from 2033, as is widely expected, the overall laydown of SSNs could be even greater. ![]() If all goes to plan, this trilateral effort could double the number of allied SSNs west of the international dateline by 2031, when SRF-West is supposed to reach its full component of forward deployed boats. President Joe Biden anywhere in the Indo-Pacific. Indeed, SRF-West is one of the most significant force posture initiatives advanced by the administration of U.S. As a relatively fast-moving and operationally relevant endeavor, it stands in stark contrast to the extremely long-term AUKUS defense industrial project. The agreement, known as Submarine Rotational Forces-West (SRF-West), is by far the most important near-term contribution to strengthening deterrence vis-à-vis China in the AUKUS submarine construct. ![]() military operations to preserve a stable balance of power in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific region. It also offers a window into the tectonic shift underway in the U.S.-Australia alliance as Canberra positions itself as a critical node in supporting high-end U.S. The move highlights how AUKUS, when combined with a new generation of U.S.-Australia force posture initiatives, can advance a strategy of collective deterrence on a much faster timeline than many expected. Virginia-class submarines and one UK Astute-class submarine begin to make rotational deployments to Western Australia’s HMAS Stirling naval base from 2027. More >īut from the standpoint of deterring Chinese aggression within the next ten years, the most significant aspect of the deal was something else: a new trilateral submarine force posture initiative. (1,450 lbs.Ashley Townshend is a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific security, directing research on regional strategy, defense policy, and alliances and partnerships. Special conditions and guarantee limitations apply. Vinyl seats with closed-cell foam upholstery and four-point racing harnesses ensure pilot and passenger safety. The cockpit's dashboard includes a speedometer, tachometer, engine and air pressure gauges, and an LCD that displays live video from the dorsal fin's built-in camera. It can hydroplane up to 50 mph over the water's surface and it can cruise up to 25 mph while submerged its dorsal fin's integrated snorkel ensures air supply to the engine up to a depth of 5'. With a finger on the right lever's throttle trigger, steering is provided by dual foot pedals that control the vectored thrust of the craft's 255-hp supercharged Rotax axial flow engine, enabling realistic behaviors such as porpoising or skyhopping. A pilot protected beneath its watertight 1/2"-thick acrylic canopy pushes and pulls twin control levers to articulate the whale's pectoral fins for rolls and stealthy dives. ![]() This is the streamlined, two-person watercraft that breaches and submerges just like the Orcinus orca after which it is designed. Exploring the spooky, surreal and surprising. ![]()
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