SMH · Matthew Knott · Friday 27 March 2026
Retired Rear Admiral warns AUKUS submarine program is a 'wasteful folly' headed for failure, urging Australia to abandon the plan before costs spiral further.
When a retired rear admiral calls your centrepiece defence policy a train smash, the polite response is not to check his ticket — it's to check the tracks. AUKUS was sold as strategic sovereignty but built as a subscription service: we pay American prices for submarines that arrive on American schedules to serve American priorities. The only thing nuclear about this program is the half-life of the money we're burning.