Strategic NewsIn a contested Indo-Pacific, undersea power is critical. AUKUS is our strategy - The Strategist | ASPI's analysis and commentary site
In a contested Indo-Pacific, undersea power is critical. AUKUS is our strategy - The Strategist | ASPI's analysis and commentary site
U.S. Secretary of Defense / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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In a contested Indo-Pacific, undersea power is critical. AUKUS is our strategy - The Strategist | ASPI's analysis and commentary site

GNews: AUKUS·2026-10-15AllianceP6: Defence SurgeP7: Alliance Architecture
Why it matters

This article reaffirms AUKUS—specifically Australia's submarine capability acquisition—as central to Australian Indo-Pacific strategy, signalling expert and strategic-community backing for the program at a time when cost, timeline, and political commitment face scrutiny. AUKUS submarine delivery directly underpins Australia's Maritime Defence pillar and Alliance cohesion; programme endorsement from a leading defence think-tank helps maintain political and budgetary momentum.

Read the original report at GNews: AUKUS

Pillar tags and the significance note are AI-classified (Claude) and human-curated. The platform's own preparedness scores never move on a single story without a separate human approval.

From the series
The Unprepared series · Part IV

Xi Jinping and the Purge That Built an Army

The PLA that Xi Jinping inherited in 2012 was modernising, and the one he commands in 2026 is transformed. Part IV of the Unprepared series.

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This week's Warning Time

This was AUKUS week, and not in the way its architects would have liked. An independent inquiry recommended scrapping the submarine pact outright, a parliamenta…

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Where this sits in the model

This development bears on 2 of the eight pillars of Australian preparedness — the overall picture right now is 5/100.

Go deeper · AUKUS Tracker
Is AUKUS keeping its promises — or quietly slipping?

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The bigger picture

One signal in a live tracker of Australia's preparedness.

Every story here is scored against eight pillars — defence, energy, industry, fiscal reform, alliances and more — companion to the book Unprepared: Australia in an Age of Chinese Power.

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