I Want Boats that Turn into Robots!

Checking in on the new frigates Japan is exporting to Australia:

The export of an advanced warship from one U.S. ally to another would not seem to signal a crisis for the United States. Indeed, the U.S. alliance network is intended to become more flexible and self-sustaining, with the United States providing an environment in which allies can defend themselves against potential aggressors.

The problem is that the United States was not even conceptually capable of making a deal of this sort with Australia. The United States no longer exports warships, in part to protect critical technology, in part because of shipbuilding constraints, and in part because the U.S. Navy’s ships are too worn out at the end of their service lives to contemplate using in another navy.

These constraints have made it difficult to live up to the terms of the AUKUS agreement, which envisions the transfer of Virginia-class submarines to Australia.

Japan laid down the first Mogami in 2019. Eight are currently in service with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, with four more expected to join within the next two years. A deal for the export of a further four frigates to Indonesia fell through last year.

By contrast, the U.S. Navy expected to lay down its first Constellation-class frigate in 2020. The Constellation was finally laid down in 2024, remains the only frigate under construction, and is not expected to enter service until 2029. The first Australian Mogami is scheduled for delivery in 2029 — possibly before the first Constellation sees a bottle of champagne.

And part of the cost offset for exporting the ships to Australia (“profit” is never quite the right word) is being used for unmanned systems, so the boats are literally being turned into robots!

Other stuff:

• Revisiting the Battle of the Yalu
• China has been hesitant to engage in the kind of nuclear risk reduction that Russia and the United States have adopted as a matter of course. Cheryl might have more to say about this…
• Pakistan and Afghanistan are skirmishing.
• I’m not 100% convinced by the argument that the US needs to be building Shahed clones, but it’s an argument worth engaging with.

Photo Credit: By Hiroshi miyaji – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125836719