Thinking Laterally – Twelve Affordable SSNs Each For The UK and Australia

Sir, – SSNs ‘The nuclear option: Thinking laterally to sustain the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine capability’, by Cdre John Aitken and Stuart Dee [113/4, p. 548] flags the falling levels of experience and growing personnel issues facing the UK’s below critical mass submarine enterprise. Something I have written about earlier in the Naval Review and elsewhere.1https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-sad-state-of-royal-navy-submarine-capability-and-the-implications-for-australia/ I agree with Rob Forsyth’s point in response to the article. Four conventional submarines are below critical mass and w…