No, I don’t know anybody who knows anybody that predicted this.
This news hit pretty hard in my view. The reactions I’ve heard from friends and journalists include:
- A good distraction from other problems popped out to distract from election issues.
- A clear message that Australia remains a US ally when considering rising tensions with China.
- If we (oz) had any brains and really wanted nuclear submarines, we’d buy them from Japan instead of starting another endless sub construction debacle.
The timeline for constructing and deploying such a sub is the 2040s!
An interesting perspective from Roger Bradbury ANU Professor of Complex Systems Science suggests the submarines will be basically redundant by the time we’ve built them (~2:30 in the audio stream)
Whatever the bigger picture is, my reactions mostly point at the breakdown of the Peace I’ve had the good fortune to live in over the last ~60 years.
France withdraws ambassadors to Australia and US over submarines deal