Australian Nuclear Weapons

[uk 75]

Anyone interested in Australian attitudes to getting nuclear weapons should start with this thread that explains how difficult it is and the US role.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/uk-thermonuclear-warheads.10419/post-98670
The UK experience with the US would be similar for Australia.

 

[GTX]

Surprise Down Under: The Secret History of Australia's Nuclear Ambitions

 

[GTX]

https://www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/oz/ozbombs

 

[GTX]

https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/a-covert-push-for-nuclear-weapons/

 

[uk 75]

Fictional accounts of Australian nuclear weapons include a book by Philip McCutchan called Bowerings Breakwater which briefly mentions Australian missiles.

 

[NMaude]

I recommend reading the late Lorna Arnold's excellent book Britain, Australia and the Bomb, also Britain and the H-Bomb is a good informative read.

 

[Sferrin]

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/buying-wrong-submarine

 

[NMaude]

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/buying-wrong-submarine

Wouldn't the RAN acquiring SSBNs that carried nuclear-armed SLBMs require changes to Australian federal law in regards to nuclear weapons?

 

[GTX]

Deleted anything off topic including political posts. Let,s keep this one to the facts related to either Australia’s actual historical nuclear weapons interest or any theoretical future programs. With the latter though, please keep to actual formal suggestions not just opinions from members.

 

[jeffb]

A brief, intelligent and nuanced discussion of Australia's nuclear weapon options by Hugh White, the principal author of Australia's 2000 Defence White Paper.
https://www.aspi.org.au/video/australia-and-nuclear-weapons-hugh-white

 

[Pirate Pete]

There is also this document…
Downloaded from Academia.edu website.

 

[Rodondo]

To be fair, we were in possession of a physics package unknowingly (from '57 ish?) until '79, the caretakers of the Maralinga/XA300 site found a plutonium core in a weapons store (-30.17350736324744, 131.62061827002785) by the runway end after the AWRE and MOD left the site, no doubt some panic in Gov't circle trying to ascertain what to do with it, we put the site under COMPOL/AFP control till we could get it sent back, with a few dozen barrels of irradiated waste as part of the repatriation deal. According to the bloke who minds the site now and does all the research into the history, the barrels were dumped off the coast of France on the way back.