Australia Rejects US Coercion on Taiwan

Australian Prime Minister Albanese has batted away public demands from US de facto Defense Secretary, Elbridge Colby, that Australia state it would defend Taiwan. This undiplomatic American baiting comes as Albanese visits China for 6 days to discuss trade. Albanese responded that Australia supports "the status quo" in regards to Taiwan. 

This US demand on Australia is hypocritical given the US has practiced strategic ambiguity since the 1970s, refusing to say whether it would defend Taiwan.

The official US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, an inexperienced, rightwing Yes Man, is mute. It is increasingly apparent to Australians and poor US citizens, that aggressive neo-fascism reigns in Trump's isolationist America. Neo-fascism? -Trump's ultranationalism, love of military parades, setting troops on unremarkable protesters, hounding and expelling peaceful minorities, disdain for judicial processes and preference for authoritarian Putin over democratic Zelensky. 

Undersecretary of Defence, Elbridge Colby, took to social media (24 hours ago)  attempting to coerce Australia and Japan into stating their positions on Taiwan's defence. This comes while the US is deserting or antagonising its allies, except Israel.  

Yet Russia has a special place in Trump's heart. See the importance of Russia in financing Trump over the years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trump_Organization#Financing  

China is shaping up to be a more reliable ally for Australia, especially in economic terms, than Trump's US.

Australia could only make an impact on Taiwan's defence if Australia had SSNs that are fast enough to get to Taiwan in about a week. Colby is likely to demand higher gifts (than the current A$800 million per year) for Australia to then buy used Virginia-class SSNs in 7 to 15 years. It is highly unlikely that  America, will deliver on Biden's AUKUS promise because the USN is desperately in need of all Virginias through to the 2040s. 

More see https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-13/albanese-taiwan-us-defence-demands-china-visit/105526626

Carrier HMS Prince of Wales Soon in Darwin, Australia.

This is a follow up to Shawn C’s excellent article “When the Carrier Prince of Wales Cruised into Singapore” of July 11, 2025 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/07/when-carrier-prince-of-wales-cruised.html 

See a great photo of HMS Prince of Wales (PofW) docking in Singapore at https://www.navylookout.com/uk-carrier-strike-group-sails-to-australia-for-multinational-exercise/ 

China’s Type 815 ship Beijixing (Polaris). Photo courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_815_spy_ship#Type_815   
---

Chinese spy ships (possibly Type 815s, photo and link above) are now in the Southeast Asian-Australian northern region, in part to monitor PofW, its F-35Bs and its carrier battle group https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-12/adf-watching-for-chinese-spy-ships-as-pm-heads-to-shanghai/105523778. This is during the Talisman Sabre 2025 (TS25) and Bersama Lima 25 exercises Shawn mentions. 

Note the UK RN has insufficient ships (only 14 destroyers/frigates in the whole RN) to fully escort PofW and the carrier Queen Elizabeth on Indo-Pacific missions. Between one and three non-British escort ships always form part of their carrier battle groups. A US SSN might also lend a hand.

The Chinese navy's job is made easier because PofW's coming and going from the Chinese owned port of Darwin can be easily tracked. PofW will likely be docking at Kuru Wharf, HMAS Coonawarra, Port of Darwin, mid to late July 2025. More on Kuru at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/03/darwin-port-hosts-us-ssn-us-submarine.html .

PofW is to host an afternoon tea for the Australian British Chamber of Commerce at Port of Darwin, Friday July 25, 2025. https://www.britishchamber.com/events/hms-prince-of-wales-darwin

A harder to spot Chinese Type 093 SSN surveillance submarine mission will also likely work with the Chinese spy ships, satellites and maybe UUVs, to surveil PofW and the other Western vessels involved in the 2025 exercises.

When the Carrier Prince of Wales Cruised into Singapore

From 23 June to early July 2025, the UK's Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales (R09) ("PofW") made a port visit to Singapore, to mark 60 years of relations with the UK and Singapore and to demonstrate the UK's commitment to the Indo-Pacific.

HMS Prince of Wales arrives at Singapore's Cruise Centre
---

PofW leads the UK RN’s CSG25 Carrier Strike Group deployment, which held exercises in the Mediterranean with the Italian Navy around 5th May. CSG25 then cleared the Red Sea and conducted exercises via the Arabian Sea with the Indian Navy. There, one of the UK F-35Bs had a weather avoidance divert to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (on India's southern tip) and had to be left behind after a mechanical issue. CSG25 then split up for port visits to Port Klang (Malaysia), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Singapore.

Several of CSG25’s ships docked at the traditional berths for visiting warships in Singapore, at Changi Naval Base and Sembawang wharves. PofW docked at Singapore’s Marina Bay Cruise Centre (photo above) which easily accommodated her. The main reason for CSG25’s visit, apart from stunning photos against the background of Singapore’s Central Business District, is that CSG25 was in Singapore to promote UK political and business interests.

PofW's docking at Marina Bay Cruise Centre therefore made it simpler for visiting guests and dignitaries. It also permitted the 1,600+ crew, in groups, to disembark quickly to catch a 15-minute Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) (subway) ride to Singapore's city centre.

In the photo above there are, what look like, a large number of marine security cameras. These may be used against commando/terrorist would be boarders, divers, suicide boats and shallow diving UUVs. These, perhaps fixed or mobile, cameras might be aimed horizontally and "look" down. Immediately below the walkway, on the bridge, there appears to be a large electro-optical sensor (camera) that may have night vision and infrared capabilities. It may be used to cover the rear half of the vessel for security and aircraft movement management duties. All these close range security cameras and sensors may have been to counter slow moving threats. They may have been installed before the rise of faster (and from longer ranges) one-way "kamikaze" UAVs and USVs, which can strike a high value target simultaneously from many directions.

 

During her stay PofW permitted the Singapore public to visit. A friend visited the ship who took these photos for me, and did not want to be credited. In its hangars PofW hosted a “defence and security” industry day (showcasing 30 British firms, including the Gravity Industries Jet Suit) and an Esports (video game) tournament. 

The last Royal Navy ship named HMS Prince of Wales to visit Singapore was the ill-fated King George V-class battleship . It jointly sank the Bismarck in May 1941, then later sailed to the "Far East" sailing into Singapore on 2 December 1941. It left on 8 December 1941, leading Force Z, to interdict an approaching Japanese invasion fleet, before being sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941. 

May the current HMS Prince of Wales have a far brighter future than her predecessor and fair seas throughout her career. 

Note CCTV cameras directly under bridge that are angled to monitor deck crews.

CSG25, joined by HMAS Sydney, has now departed Singapore and will participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre 25 in Australian waters, but on the return leg. CSG25 will also participate in Bersama Lima 25, the annual Five Power Defence Act (FPDA) exercise between Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. According to the Straits Times, the last time a UK RN aircraft carrier took part in a FPDA exercise was HMS Invincible in 1997.

In mid-July HMS Prince of Wales is due to make a port visit to Darwin, Australia, then later to Japan, back near Southeast Asia, India and then via the Red Sea, Mediterranean, back to the UK.  

Australia's AUKUS Gift Going to Columbia SSBN Construction

More than 2/3s of America's submarine building effort is going to America's highest priority Columbia-class nuclear missile submarines. [1]

Australia has no say on where our A$800 million per year gift to US submarine builders (GDEB and HII) goes.

It is highly likely most of our A$800 million gift is going to Columbia nuclear missile submarine construction [2] rather than to America's lower priority, hence underfunded Virginia-class submarine construction [3].

[1]  https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2025/06/us-gov-giving-columbia-subs-priority.html

[2]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia-class_submarine#Boats_in_class

[3]  Peter Briggs, March 11, 2025, at https://warontherocks.com/2025/03/when-it-comes-to-submarines-australia-is-going-to-be-left-high-and-dry/#:~:text=The%20building%20effort%20required%20for%20one%20Columbia%2Dclass,required%20to%20build%20one%20Virginia%20in%202015. 

The Unlikely Rise of the Indian Space Program

From REAL ENGINEERING uploaded May 18 2025 HERE.
---

Like all space agencies India's ISRO is of dual-use military civilian benefit, particularly in rocket booster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO#Launch_vehicles satellite sensors and guidance research. Wikipedia reports https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO : 

"The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister of India, with the Chairman of ISRO also serving as the chief executive of the DoS. It is primarily responsible for space-based operations, space exploration, international space cooperation and the development of related technologies.^[3] The agency maintains a constellation of imaging, communications and remote sensing satellites. It operates the GAGAN and IRNSS satellite navigation systems. It has sent three missions to the Moon and one mission to Mars.

Formerly known as the Indian National Committee for Space Research  ISRO was set up in 1962 by the Government of India. It was renamed as ISRO in 1969.

ISRO built India's first satellite Aryabhata which was launched by the Soviet space agency Interkosmos in 1975.^[8] In 1980, it launched the satellite RS-1 on board the indigenously built launch vehicle SLV-3, making India the seventh country to undertake orbital launches. It has subsequently developed various small-lift and medium-lift launch vehicles, enabling the agency to launch various satellites and deep space missions. It is one of the six government space agencies in the world that possess full launch capabilities with the ability to deploy cryogenic engines, launch extraterrestrial missions and artificial satellites.^[9][10][b] It is also the only one of the four governmental space agencies to have demonstrated unmanned soft landing capabilities.^[11][c]

ISRO's programmes have played a significant role in socio-economic development. It has supported both civilian and military domains in various aspects such as disaster management, telemedicine, navigation and reconnaissance. ISRO's spin-off technologies have also aided in new innovations in engineering and other allied domains.^[12]

The arrival of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 1990s was a major boost for the Indian space programme. With the exception of its first flight in 1994 and two partial failures later, the PSLV had a streak of more than 50 successful flights. The PSLV enabled India to launch all of its low Earth orbit satellites, small payloads to GTO and hundreds of foreign satellites.^[32] Along with the PSLV flights, development of a new rocket, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) was going on. India tried to obtain upper-stage cryogenic engines from Russia's Glavkosmos but was blocked by the US from doing so. As a result, KVD-1 engines were imported from Russia under a new agreement which had limited success^[33] and a project to develop indigenous cryogenic technology was launched in 1994, taking two decades to reach fulfillment.^[34] A new agreement was signed with Russia for seven KVD-1 cryogenic stages and a ground mock-up stage with no technology transfer, instead of five cryogenic stages along with the technology and design in the earlier agreement.^[35] These engines were used for the initial flights and were named GSLV Mk.1.^[36] ISRO was under US government sanctions between 6 May 1992 to 6 May 1994.^[37] After the United States refused to help India with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology during the Kargil war, ISRO was prompted to develop its own satellite navigation system IRNSS (now NaVIC i.e. Navigation with Indian Constellation) which it is now expanding further.^[38]

21st century

In 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged scientists to develop technologies to land humans on the Moon^[39] and programmes for lunar, planetary and crewed missions were started. ISRO launched Chandrayaan-1 aboard PSLV in 2008, purportedly the first probe to verify the presence of water on the Moon.^[40]

ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (or Mangalyaan) aboard a PSLV in 2013, which later became the first Asian spacecraft to enter Martian orbit, making India the first country to succeed at this on its first attempt.^[41]

Subsequently, the cryogenic upper stage for GSLV rocket became operational, making India the sixth country to have full launch capabilities.^[42] A new heavier-lift launcher LVM3 was introduced in 2014 for heavier satellites and future human space missions.^[43]

On 23 August 2023, India achieved its first soft landing on an extraterrestrial body and became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon with ISRO's Chandrayaan-3, the third Moon mission.^[44] Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 (lit. "Mooncraft"), saw the successful soft landing of its Vikram lander at 6.04 pm IST (12:34 pm GMT) near the little-explored southern pole of the Moon in a world's first for any space programme.^[45]

India then successfully launched its first solar probe, the Aditya-L1, aboard a PSLV on 2 September 2023.^[46][47]

On 30 December 2024, ISRO successfully launched the SpaDeX mission, pioneering spacecraft rendezvous, docking, and undocking using two small satellites.^[48][49] On 16 January 2025, the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network's Mission Operations Complex verified that the docking process was successful. India became the 4th country — after USA, Russia and China — to achieve successful Space Docking.^[50][51][52] ISRO also successfully managed to control two satellites as a single entity after docking.^[53]

Launch facilities

• Satish Dhawan Space Centre
• SSLV Launch Complex
• Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station

Future projects

ISRO is developing and operationalising more powerful and less pollutive rocket engines so it can eventually develop much heavier rockets. It also plans space station above earth where astronauts can stay for 15–20 days. The time frame is 5–7 years after Gaganyaan,^[150] to develop electric and nuclear propulsion for satellites and spacecraft to reduce their weight and extend their service lives.^[190] Long-term plans may include crewed landings on the Moon and other planets as well.^[191]"

US Gov Giving Columbia Subs Priority Over AUKUS Commitment

The US Government is giving production of Columbia SSBNs priority over AUKUS Virginia commitments.

Rather than producing 2.33 Virginias per year to meet AUKUS commitments, the US Government is producing only 1.1 to 1.2 (page 56 reference below) Virginias per year. 

This is in order to permit "top priority" (page 50) to be given to 1 Columbia class SSBN launch per year. 

"One COLUMBIA Class SSBN represents approximately 2.5 [Virginia class] VACL SSNs in terms of build resources (manning) and tonnage." (page 62)

The reference is the US Congressional Research Service's Navy Virginia-Class Submarine Program and AUKUS Submarine (Pillar 1) Project: Background and Issues for Congress of February 11, 2025 at https://sgp.fas.org/crs/weapons/RL32418.pdf