Washington appears to have decided that the best military choice at the moment is to rely on a Cold War-type coalition, with its most trusted allies at its centre.
As a result, it has announced the AUK US trilateral security accord, a US-UK-Australian military partnership to fight China's increasing threat in the Indo-Pacific. The US and the UK will enable Australia to design and build up to eight nuclear-powered attack submarines, which is the high point of AUK US. It did, however, cause tensions between Australia and France.Because , Australia has pulled out of a $40 billion contract inked in 2016 with France to provide submarines to the Australia.
In this partnership The United States and UK will transfer naval nuclear-propulsion technology to Australia. Such a move represents a significant policy shift for the United States, which has previously gone to great lengths to prevent the transfer of naval reactor technology to other countries, with the exception of its World War II ally, the United Kingdom.
the US won’t give India nuclear submarines
Indian Navy chiefs and naval veterans have raised the prospect of Indo-US collaboration on nuclear reactor propulsion technology but their American counterparts have respectfully declined.
The US, with over 70 operational nuclear submarines, has more nuclear submarines than Russia, France and UK put together .Indian officials began discussing the possibility of buying or leasing US SSNs but the US show no commitment to a stable defence relationship by leasing a few Los Angeles-class SSNs to India
This request might have sounded out of place considering that India already operates nuclear submarines-becoming the world’s sixth country to do so when it commissioned the INS Arihant in 2016
But , However, The Arihant, is an SSBN (nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine) , a slow-moving ‘bomber’ and a stealthy launch platform for nuclear weapons But ,What the Indian navy wants are SSNs
The Arihant and three more SSBNs under construction are part of the Strategic Forces Command.
Now , if we look at the relationship between US-UK-Australia is very different from that with India, neither Washington nor London is likely to easily hand over any technology to India.
some years ago Britain said to India that - What You are asking us for the kind of technology we don’t give to even our closest allies,
Both US and UK have far greater technology, and the reactors of its latest submarines don’t need to be fueled for their lifetime, whereas the Arihant will have to be taken to a drydock, cut open, and refueled every six to seven years
US N-subs use the most sophisticated nuclear reactors. The newest Virginia class SSNs for instance have reactors that use bomb-grade uranium (U-235 enriched to over 90 %). They are designed to operate for 33 years without refuelling
With India ,The US has consistently refused to discuss any possibility of parting with knowhow on naval nuclear reactors
20 сен 2021
