The U.S. Navy Goes Down Under || Feb. 11, 2026
The U.S. is turning to the Aussies for some help with stationing four American submarines at Stirling in a hedge against potential future conflicts with China.
This is done in an effort to help the U.S. reduce reliance on Guam should the Chinese strike, giving the U.S. options other than Hawaii. This move has some pros and cons. Stirling is outside China's striking range, but it's incredibly isolated. So, the U.S. couldn't project power directly against China from there, but China's trade routes in the Indian Ocean and Strait of Malacca would be vulnerable. The forces based at Stirling would also be on their own if anything boils up, which isn't ideal.
Beyond this plan being good or bad, its just outright unsettling. This move signals the U.S. is preparing for a world where our current global trading system will be irreparably broken.
Comments (37)
The range of Chinese missiles is going to increase, is it not? One day it may reach the new Aussy base. Not wishing for this to happen, but it's likely that it would happen.
So the US military is still thinking strategically. And here I thought the administrations priorities for the military were planning to quell domestic insolence and picking on weak countries like Venezuela and Iran.
One has to believe they there still are some intelligent officers in the U.S. military.. in spite of SecDef being a DUI hire that is a completely useless narcissistic twatwaffle .
Honestly, reading strategic intent in anything our current government does is like examining a sheep’s liver for divine guidance.
Controlling the Panama Canal and the Arctic and Indian oceans blocks Chinese access to the Atlantic.
The global system is breaking down is a Zeihan doctrine. Of course, everything changes over time and now the global system when the US changes role. Everyone will work to ensure that a better system comes out on the other side. What is certain is that the US will participate in it, if not they will be the ones who suffer unnecessarily. Zeihan's doomsday doctrine where everything breaks down and everyone falls over the cliff is not the likely development. The difficult thing is to understand what comes out on the other side.
The US currently has an orange narcissistic lying criminal president but that time has an end. The historical direction of US capitalist action will return in some form when the orange one is gone. Of course, the US will not be trusted as before and that is definitely a factor that drives change.
I'm an expat Yank in Sydney and let me tell you having lived here since 1989, don't fuck with the Aussies. It won't be fun. Perth is a great idea if for no other reason than to worry Xi and his mob a little more.
I spent a couple years working in Australia (Melbourne area) and I quickly came to the realization that the Australians are most definitely an independent bunch.
A fun fact / piece of trivia; the USN has utilised HMAS Stirling base in Western Australia in the past for the same reasons as Peter has outlined in his post today. During WW2 the submarine squadron at the facility was under the command of the father of former Arizona Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain (RIP). This was the start of an extraordinarily close friendship / association between Australia and the McCain family that led some wags to make the observation that each US state has two representatives in the Senate and during John McCain’s time Australia also had one. Senator McCain’s admirable efforts supporting the US / Australia alliance in the Congress continue, thanks to bipartisan support from Joe Courtney (D-CT) & Michael McCaul (R-TX) the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus👍.
Hopefully all the many billions of dollars Australia is spending on Virginia class Subs. May actually materialize into Australia actually owning and operating them in the future?? Australia upgrading Garden Island may be part of the plan to see if "our ally" the USA, is not going to turn out to be our worst criminal thief?
I’m just kind of worried that the governmental purge that the Trump administration has conducted might’ve affected the military strongly. Any idea who was behind the decision to move the navy by Australia?
Tim it dates back to the Biden administrations decision to sign up to the AUKUS agreement to supply Virginia class subs to Australia and then support both the UK & Australia to build a new generation of nuclear subs to support the Western alliance and maintain the peace in the Asia Pacific region. The agreement not only gives the USN & RN basing rights in WA, it includes the Australian government building a complete nuclear submarine maintenance and repair facility for all three navies. The AUKUS agreement has now survived major changes in government in all three countries with President Trump recently being quoted as saying that on his watch the agreement is “full steam ahead”👍
China deployed an 055 destroyer to Persian gulf, I thought they can’t project power ? Those destroyers beat the crap out of US ships…any word on that?
JT: China's eight Type 055 guided-missile destroyers (really, cruisers) have an estimated range of 5,000 nmi (9,300 km), and in theory could circle the globe forever like the Flying Dutchman if the PRC could, in theory, keep throwing compatible fuel at them. That's not what "able to project power" means in a major-powers sense. If you'd followed Mr. Zeihan's recurring briefings, you'd know that the PLA Navy has few such vessels and, also, in the event of a hot war, would quickly lose refueling and basing options far from home, to either host countries asserting their self-interest (even Sri Lanka having the power to say "nope, you can't be here now") or hostile powers denying access. You seem to be referring to a PLAN computer simulation exercise a year ago, Certainly. the Type 055 is good. But so were the Bismarck and the Tirpitz.
When I served on the early nukes in the 1960's, we could "easily" stay at sea for at least 60 days. I don't know what they can do now, but that certainly extends their reach. We upkeeped the boats pretty routinely from a tender which was taking care of 4 to 6 of us at a time. I rather imagine all that has been upgraded too. I suspect that the boats to be stationed out of Perth are rather nimble fast attacks versus boomers like I served on. They can, for the most part, be serviced with supplies via air, versus worrying about Guam as a source.
Best beaches on earth in Perth
Absolutely! Western Australia in general has extraordinary beaches. You can spend days or weeks camping in remote stretches of pristine coastline without seeing another soul. White sand, blue water bays, kilometres of raw coastline.
Not in the correct forum, but does anyone know what was going on at the El Paso airport that made it close for so long?
Pentagon wants to test anti-drug drone lasers. FAA says piss off, that's what Area 51 is for,
US Navy likely has the capacity to prevent trades from South America, making it to China and with our positioning in the Indian Ocean, preventing energy and raw resources from Africa, making it to the pacific… It seems like the US is positioning itself to ensure that if China can’t win a short war we will draw it out and it would be a fait accompli
Posts like these always concern more than others.
love the line "incredibly smart and a little stupid" at the same time
Glad to here Robust is back
HMAS Sterling on Garden Island off the coast of Perth. Australia is one of our closest allies, but just give it time, and the alienator-in-chief will muck this relationship up at some point.
How? They don't even know what snowflakes are
Good update, thanks 👍 no doubt Aukus has some clauses about defending all of Australia, which would be hard to do without a presence in Western Australia in some form. While the Port of Darwin in the north is owned by the Chinese (let's call that a future negotiation), it's the closest to the Strait of Malacca - but if the vibe gets a bit explosive as a contested shipping choke point then the only way to get meaningful supplies would be Queensland in the East or Perth (Stirling) in the West. That's a 3 day drive with barely any gas stations along the way. So Perth is sort of a necessity if there's going to be a US presence in the region. If the strait of Malacca is going bang bang bang then anything on the surface is getting shot at... Subs make way more sense then.
Why don’t we have a base on the Midway Islands ?
Too far away, and too small. The only inhabitants today are a boat Skipper, first mate Gilligan, a Professor, and two women along with the remains of a film crew.
Id love to see a PZ/Sarah Paine collab someday.
Agree. Likely scenario is Chinese will quickly win battles, Singapore closes straits, Darwin and Diego Sierra interdict shipping, China uses up their 90 days of oil and food then faces famine that starves three-fourths entire population to death.
Xi will be annoyed.
Pooh gets grumpy but just needs a nap. 😁
My-view ... I think they should do exactly that, Peter ... as first step - of Phase Won ... with a minimum of three subsequent Phases to follow. You CANNOT 🐝 ... Overly Prepared ... in this 🌏 Today. Any "pacifists" who thinks that as "over-Spend" or that 👁️ am FulovIt ... send an Email to Mark Rutte ... query He ... for his thoughts. It just HAS to Happen. There is NO-SUCH-Thing ... as Over-Prepared.
Thanks for the update Peter. Strategy aside, I was wondering how linked this is to the AUKUS deal, which gets doubted everyday. Dan from Perth!
Ooooooooh, you know I always thought the entire Indian Ocean would look a lot prettier if it prominently featured like a semi permanent petrol sheen!
These are nuclear subs Peter is talking about, no need for petrol.