AUKUS DEAL:

WASHINGTON, DC: The White House has belatedly revealed a key detail emerging from this week’s high-level discussions between Australian and US decision-makers on the AUKUS pact.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Richard Marles, and Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong, have been in Washington to discuss with their US counterparts the findings of the Trump administration’s review of the AUKUS deal.

At a news conference yesterday, Mr Marles and Senator Wong were joined by US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the recently re-re-named Secretary of Extra-Judicial Killing, Pete Hegseth, to announce the outcome of the US review. (below)

Both Mr Rubio and Mr Hegseth repeated the words of President Trump to declare it was “full steam ahead” on the AUKUS deal.

Similarly, Mr Marles – through an interpreter – and Senator Wong repeated the “full steam ahead” description.

However, it was only after the news conference had ended that a Trump administration source revealed that the “full steam ahead” description was a literal one, with the US Defence Department preparing to sell the Royal Australian Navy ageing surplus steam-powered submarines that have been sitting unused since the end of the Civil War in 1865.

“In the dying days of the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln directed the Union Army to develop a new type of boat that could sail underwater to destroy Confederate ships and port infrastructure,” the White House source said. (main picture)

“Unfortunately the first boats built were able to submerge only to a depth equivalent to the height of their chimney, so work started on a new variant but the war ended soon after and the project was abandoned.

“Only a handful of these steam-powered boats were built but they were saved from the scrapheap and have been moored at a US Navy base for 160 years.

“We’re more than willing to sell them to our good friends in Australia for $400 billion,” the source said. “As President Trump says, it’s a good deal, there’s no doubt about that.”

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