Why is a base for the United States in the Indian Ocean so essential? “Australia has unique geography, and the United States is looking to build strategic depth in the Indo-Pacific — as they did during the Second World War. AUKUS will deliver that with HMAS Stirling becoming a US submarine base,” Andrew Hastie, a former SAS Captain and opposition frontbencher noted last year. Ultimately, AUKUS gives the United States what it has always craved and needed to contain China and prevent the Chinese Communist Party from dominating control of the region. The Labor government has an obsession with secrecy when it comes to defence and AUKUS that goes beyond national security classification requirements.