Inb4 productive forces.
Tbf who knows how many hands this passed through before ending up with the Australian navy. But it isn’t a good look. Plus, you’d think manufacturers would want as small of a supply chain as possible for military applications to prevent sabotage or whatever.
Largest Alumina and Bauxite exporter, Largest Bauxite miner, and 2nd Largest Alumina producer. 6th largest Aluminium metal producer. Literally no excuse to buy from China for something that might need to be manufactured under war or trade embargo.
We are literally mining Bauxite, sending it to China, and then having them make dodgy metal plates for us to buy. Tremendous flex by the Chinese.
deleted by creator
My understanding is that "tremendous flex" was one of the problems reported with the aluminum itself, so this checks out