THE DEBATE PAPERS THE DEBATE PAPERS Optimal Pathway: the best option left Dr Richard Dunley is a Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra The AUKUS Optimal Pathway is a risky endeavour and faces many challenges, but given the limited options left to Australian officials and policymakers, it is probably the best pathway forward. [...] Is the pathway the of the first submarine.”3 The problem with this best available solution to the problem set given to approach was that Australia was looking to get Vice-Admiral Jonathan Mead and his US and UK on board at precisely the wrong moment in both counterparts? Probably. [...] The decision to The transfer of US Virginia-class submarines to switch to nuclear-propelled submarines, whatev- Australia in the early 2030s has become a litmus er the merits of that decision in terms of strategy test for the success of the entire AUKUS project, and capability, served to dramatically increase something that is deeply ironic given that it the scale of the challenge. [...] But, given the complexity of the submarine (SSK) to bridge the gap between the question asked of Australia’s public servants, it is retirement of the Collins-class and the domes- difficult to see a better alternative. [...] In the future, Australia could continue to support the build ambitious for all the or assembly of SSN-X components, with a goal to make the SSN-X Australia’s future subma- wrong reasons and set to rine once the cost is more sensible and if proof of concept for Australia to operate its own SSNs a timeline that is utterly remains evident.
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