@Rich of Observationz

You're right, certainly not the UK. But it was in the Yank's best interests to have a willing ally with this capability in the region. No joke, this kind of stuff goes on all the time. Retro-fitting Collins Class for long range missile capabilities? We have three already.

Thats not the cool bit though (for me), they have a holographic grid showing the ocean floor in 3D. Tis truly sweet. =D

@Scott

Most of our money is spent on weaponry and operations that the public doesn't even know exists.

I cited 'clearance divers' (or frogmen) because of the few who have worked in foreign waters in submarines with these capabilities and weapons.

Not much to say other than its been going on for years.

[QUOTE]"It helps to have 'unspecified' threats. That way you can spend billions and billions on hardware without having to justify who you would ever have to use it against.
Australia is about to launch into spending AUD$36 billion on long range missile submarines. "The biggest and most complex non-nuclear submarine ever built on this planet". And that's before the cost overruns. Since they don't have nuclear weapons, I have no idea what the point of such machines is, but that's their problem..."[/QUOTE]

I think you'll find you're wrong. Some sections of Australia's "army" do indeed have nuclear missiles. We have had for years actually. If you were a 'clearance diver' then you'd know what I'm talking about.

Secondly, those billions of dollars for the Australian Defence Force are not being spent on public projects - or at least, not in reality. There are certain devices and projects we have and maintain that cost us into the many billions to do.