In history, a retreat from Singapore can have hairs all over it, but Richard Marles has turned that around, as the Grumpy Strategists unpack the events. At Singapore’s Shangri-La dialogue, Mr Marles faced down an America First Pete Hegseth, meeting the Pentagon chief’s fiery lethality towards allies with his own Aussie cold steel.

The result is Australia’s AUKUS deliverables are now 3 used US Virginia class subs sometime in the 2030s instead of the earlier stupid idea of getting a new sub as part of the deal.

There’s celebration in the streets here in Canberra now that our fears that we might get a new submarine of any kind sometime in the next 20 years have been laid to rest. Australia is moving towards global best practice in aged care for submarines with our Collins class fleet….now that we’ve cancelled their life extension program (??)…..We must not let this national skill wither, but apply it instead to subs with nuclear reactors on board. Mr Marles and his colleague Pat Conroy seem to understand this intuitively in a way others don’t.

Marcus channels his inner Marles to show us the benefits of this ‘chase for simplicity’ and ‘cost savings’ through a standalone fleet of 3 used subs. It’s a tweak to what we had previously understood was a uniquely complex and costly but deeply integrated 3 nation AUKUS program.

The episode deals with Minister Marles’ greatest fears. And with clown spiders, one of Michael’s. It also shows the difference between an AUKUS Pillar 2 “Signature” project and the highly anticipated “Marquee” project many had expected. Hint: you can fit many signatures onto one marquee.