Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has blasted Peter Dutton as "belligerent" following revelations he tried to buy two US nuclear submarines to meet a capability gap.
Mr Turnbull criticised the former defence minister for his role in scrapping a French submarine deal in favour of acquiring nuclear powered subs under the AUKUS security pact.
Mr Dutton said he had planned to buy two Virginia-class subs from the US by 2030, to plug a gap, with nuclear submarines unlikely to be delivered until a decade later.
