SAN DIEGO/CANBERRA: In a significant breakthrough, the United States, Australia and Britain unveiled the niceties of a proposal to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines by the early 2030s to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
Addressing a formal ceremony at a US naval base in San Diego, accompanied by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US President Joe Biden termed the arrangement under the 2021 AUKUS partnership part of a shared commitment to a free-and-open Indo-Pacific region with two of America’s “most trustworthy allies.”
Sunak called it “a powerful partnership, which for the first time meant three fleets of submarines working together across the Atlantic and Pacific to keep the oceans free … for decades to come.”
US intends to sell Australia nuclear-powered submarines
Under the contract, America intends to sell Australia three US Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines, which will be built by General Dynamics, by the early 2030s, with Australia having the option to buy two more if needed, a joint statement said.
The statement said the multi-stage project would culminate with UK and Australia producing and operating a new submarine class – SSN-AUKUS – a “trilaterally developed” vessel based on Britain’s next-generation design jointly built in Britain and Australia and included “cutting edge” US technologies.
Britain would get delivery of its first SSN-AUKUS submarine in the late 2030s, and Australia would take its first in the early 2040s. BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce will build the vessels.
“The AUKUS agreement we confirm in San Diego represents the biggest single investment in Australia’s defence capability in history, strengthening Australia’s national security and stability in the region,” Albanese said, speaking at the ceremony.
AUKUS would be the first time Washington had shared nuclear propulsion cutting technology since it did so with the UK in the 1950s.
Biden said that the submarines would be nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed: “These boats would not have nuclear weapons of any kind on them,” he claimed.
But the contract comes with an eye-watering bill for Australia, with the cost estimated to go up to A$368 billion ($245 billion) by 2055.
Albanese defended the deal, saying it was “an economic plan, not just a defence and security plan”.
He said that he expected AUKUS would result in A$6 billion invested in Australia’s industrial capability over the next four years and create about 20,000 direct jobs over the next 30 years. He said it would require funding amounting to about 0.15% of GDP annually.
