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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep into a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***As Washington and U.S. allies prepare for the transition to the incoming Trump administration, there is uncertainty about how the new administration will approach AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom. We asked four experts to weigh in on the view from Canberra.Read more below.Peter Briggs Retired submarine specialist Former president of the Submarine Institute of AustraliaI am a long-term advocate for nuclear-powered submarines to greatly increase Australia’s ability to deter and, if necessary, “To fight and win at sea.” The current AUKUS plan will not achieve this.The U.S. Navy has no spare capacity to sell Australia three to five Virginia-class submarines to cover the gap of the ageing Collins class, the first of which is due to retire in 2026.The arrival of a new, large, British-designed nuclear-powered attack submarine — from the designer of the troubled Astute class — with a new, untested reactor from an underperforming U.K. submarine enterprise will be too late and too expensive.Both submarines would be too large for Australia, with a population of 26 million people, to crew, too expensive for a credible force of at least 12 submarines, and too late to fill the gap left by a high-risk Collins life extension program.We are headed for less submarine capability, possibly worse. There are two options to avoid a train crash. First, shift to a Virginia Block VII baseline, though a large submarine and crew and highly enriched uranium are disadvantages. An alternative is the French Suffren-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, which is smaller with half the crew of a Virginia. Twelve Australian built “Suffroos” and basing facilities for allied submarines in Western Australia would