The AUKUS debate keeps returning to hull numbers and delivery dates. The harder variable is throughput: welders certified, dry docks scheduled, and export-control lawyers persuaded. Optempo is set in shipyards years before it is set at sea.
Three systems, one queue
Pooling production across three countries means pooling their bottlenecks too. The pact will be judged on whether it can create genuinely fungible capacity, not on any single boat's commissioning ceremony.