The big shift as Australia makes the AUKUS leap

And spending extra money in a finite budget means other areas will lose out. Yet more noses out of joint.

But this is over an SSN - a nuclear-powered, general-purpose attack submarine. The SSN-AUKUS, no less.

A US, UK and Australian-made boat from a particular AUKUS club, to be delivered to the UK first, but to Australia - if all the ducks line up - just shy of 20 years from now and through to 2054. Perhaps beyond.

Yet here is the moment of launch for a program which will likely hit the top-dollar estimate of $368 billion.

In front of a strategically placed Virginia class sub (we are buying those too) in San Diego, Anthony Albanese stood with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to mark the "momentous" moment and talk of a world "defined by danger, disorder, and division".

Three allies making a show of building up military capability together, while insisting they are "bringing stability" and not challenging anyone.

"We want to be completely transparent with our neighbours and with the world about what we're doing and why we're doing it. What our strategic intent is," Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Tuesday. "Our concern about other military build-ups is that they happen in a manner which is opaque."

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There have been 60 phone calls or so made to regional leaders to talk through AUKUS details, while there have been hundreds of engagements since AUKUS was first announced back in 2021 under the Morrison government.

Not yet China, which has more than 50 nuclear subs and is seeking to turn its military into a "Great Wall of Steel", but the offer is there. It is understood Australian officials contacted counterparts in Beijing on Monday.

Attention is quickly turning to the issues of nuclear waste, which Australia has flagged it will handle, and inspections. We are told there is time to sort this all out, Australia takes "nuclear stewardship" very seriously and that Australia is already "gold standard" in the eyes of the monitoring and inspection agency, the IAEA.

Nonetheless, there is a very public push back, intimidation even, and it is not abating. There have been international articles and posturing referring to an arms race and AUKUS being an Anglo club.

One thing Australia is trying to be clear about is that it is not using a "loophole" in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to receive the nuclear material for non-explosive military use, such as naval propulsion. China's mission to the United Nations argued AUKUS is a "textbook case of double standard will damage the authority and effectiveness of the international non-proliferation system".

But Australia insists the NPT "implicitly considers" such cases. It is just that Australia is the first.

Domestically, the full bi-partisanship flowing from the Coalition has been proven to have limits when it comes to funding.

Defence has been asked to offset $3 billion elsewhere to support the deal. The Albanese government is not showing its cards yet with the Defence Strategic Review still a month away and less than two months until the federal budget.

"We can't allow Labor to cannibalise the defence force to pay for AUKUS," Peter Dutton said on Tuesday.

There have been some spectacular statements about AUKUS. It is a "generational opportunity," and the "single biggest leap" and a "f---ing big deal".

While the markers are set now, it will be the next generation - with the next generation's money - to find out.