Australia has been forced to pursue nuclear submarines because of China's military build-up in the South China Sea and nearby Papua New Guinea, sparking fears of war.
Little more than five years ago, then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the French shipbuilding Naval Group would be given a contract to build submarines, which weren't scheduled to go into service until the mid-2030s.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's territorial aggression has forced Australia to reconsider that blown-out $90billion contract and instead acquire nuclear-armed subs from the US and the UK for the Royal Australian Navy much sooner.
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Australia has been forced to pursue nuclear submarines because of China's military build-up in the South China Sea and nearby Papua New Guinea, sparking fears of war (pictured is Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Thursday's announcement)
In recent years, Communist China has built military bases in the South China Sea and terrorised smaller Asian nations like the Philippines and Vietnam with a series of naval exercises.
A conflict in this area could jeopardise international shipping, and threaten Australia's ability to export goods and import essentials from Asia in the event of war.
China has also upgraded an airport in Papua New Guinea, which is near an Australian-funded air base and right on the nation's doorstep.
Satellite imagery shows China has made significant progress in upgrading Momote Airport, the nearest airfield to Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island, jointly owned by Australia and PNG.
Australia last year began work on this upgrade, pouring in $175million, to it could host American warships.
The Lowy Institute's director of international security Sam Roggeveen said China's rise was behind Australia's decision to join only six nations in the world operating nuclear submarines.
'It is impossible to read this as anything other than a response to China's rise, and a significant escalation of American commitment to that challenge,' he said.
'The United States has only ever shared this technology with the United Kingdom, so the fact that Australia is now joining this club indicates that the United States is prepared to take significant new steps and break with old norms to meet the China challenge.'
Chinese President Xi Jinping's territorial aggression has, politically at least, forced Australia to reconsider that blown-out $90billion contract and instead acquire nuclear-armed subs from the US and the UK for the Royal Australian Navy much sooner
University of Sydney Associate Professor of Northeast Asian Politics, James Reilly, said the arms race between China on one side and Australia and the US on the other in this part of the Pacific could lead to war.
'I personally am deeply concerned about, what we call in international relations, security dilemmas where each two sides to a dispute keep taking more and more measures that they believe are reasonable and defensive but the other side responds in kind,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'We end up with spirals of increasing army, military build-ups, mistrust and increasing risk of war.
'The risk of war increases the more the countries are arming each other.'
China isn't stopping at rival airbases in PNG, stepping up efforts to turn the tiny island of Daru into an industrial fishing park.
Little more than five years ago, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the French shipbuilding Naval Group would be given a contract to build submarines, which weren't scheduled to go into service until the mid-2030s
Professor Reilly, an advocate for more diplomacy who has written several books in China's ambitions, said that while China was unlikely to
