AUKUS doubts after US moves to cut production of Virginia class subs
The United States plans to build only one Virginia class nuclear-powered submarine a year for the next few years, throwing into doubt an AUKUS defence pact commitment for Australia to receive three in the 2030s.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces the AUKUS submarines deal with US President Joe Biden and UK PM Rishi Sunak in March 2023. Photo: AP/Evan Vucci
The proposed 2025 US defence budget has axed one Virginia-class submarine from an intended build program and plans to build just one a year for several years.
The US did not expect to fund the building of two Virginia-class submarines a year until 2028. Australia had been expected to take delivery of its first nuclear-powered submarine in 2032, with at least two more to follow.
Under the AUKUS pact set to cost Australia at least $368 billion, Australia is then expected to receive nuclear-powered submarines of a new design to be built in the UK, before nuclear-powered submarines are built in Adelaide in the early 2040s.
Virginia-class submarines supposed to be delivered this year in America were running an average of more than 30 months late, US defence under secretary comptroller and chief financial officer Michael McCord said.
There are more than a dozen on order that remain in production.
“We’ve already had some beginnings of submarine industrial base investments … It was a priority in last year’s budget, which, again, we don’t have that money yet, so that’s a problem,” McCord said.
US President Joe Biden’s budget request for 2025 also includes US$11 billion for additional investment over the next five years for the domestic submarine industry.
Australia will also contribute $3 billion to the US submarine industry to help increase production rates.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said that Australia, the US and Britain remained committed to the AUKUS pact.
“All three AUKUS partners are working at pace to integrate our industrial bases and to realise this historic initiative between our countries,” he said.
But former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the US decision to cut back its submarine building was a setback for Australia.
“The reality is the Americans are not going to make their submarine deficit worse than it is already by giving or selling submarines to Australia and the AUKUS legislation actually sets that up,” he said.
“We are bobbing along as a cork in the maelstrom of American politics.
“The reality is, unless the Americans are able to dramatically change the pace at which they’re producing submarines, and there’s no reason to believe they will be able to do so, we will not ever get the submarines that were promised.”
– with AAP
