For Australia, the reality is, AUKUS is an illusion. To date, our sole contribution to the agreement has been to provide billions of dollars into the US and UK defence coffers whilst our own national security readiness slowly sinks, John Powers* writes in The Canberra Times.
The reality for the US, is they get $554 billion Australian dollars for providing three to five “second-hand” Virginia-class submarines sometime in the next decade. However, the President of the United States could renege on the deal if certain “conditions” aren’t met.
