In the backdrop across the water was the mighty USS Missouri, a 115-metre-long Virginia-class submarine − the same type of vessel Australia plans to buy from the US in the next decade, before eventually making homegrown subs in the 2040s.

While AUKUS appears to have dominated the news for weeks in Australia, it was interesting to note how little it resonated in the US press or among the American public more broadly. Cable news stations ignored the story in the lead-up to the announcement and barely covered it afterwards.

What’s more, none of the locals I met in San Diego had heard of the pact, from my Uber driver, who was an army veteran, to the many young sailors who attended the event, dressed impeccably in black uniforms and white sailor caps. “They just told us to come and stand in position,” a young female officer informed me as we waited for the presidential motorcade to arrive.

In defence circles, however, AUKUS is significant − or to quote Biden’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, Kurt Campbell: “an effing big deal”.

If it succeeds − and that’s still a big if − Australia will have one of the most powerful navies in the world and will be only the seventh nation to possess nuclear-powered submarines.

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Whether the plan gets through Congress, whether it’ll be worth the astonishing price tag, or whether Australia has the capacity to build an AUKUS-ready nuclear workforce is yet to be seen. But there’s no escaping the fact that we are now firmly at the front line of an unpredictable rivalry between two dominant superpowers: the United States and China.

As Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, put it this week: failure is not an option.

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