WASHINGTON --- The leaders of the United States, Australia and Britain will unveil on Monday a plan to outfit Australia with nuclear-powered submarines in an unprecedented three-way defense partnership that seeks to counter China’s attempts to achieve naval dominance in the Pacific.
The plan, known as AUKUS, was first announced in September 2021. The advanced submarines — the first of which will be American-made — are now expected to arrive as early as 2032, still a decade off but years ahead of the timeline many expected, said Western officials, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
President Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will unveil the details of the new partnership aboard the USS Missouri submarine in San Diego. If realized, analysts said, it could be the most consequential trilateral defense technology partnership in modern history.
The first to arrive will be America’s state-of-the-art Virginia class attack subs. Australia will buy up to five of the submarines, which experts said cost about $3 billion each. The ultimate model will be British-designed — an entirely new class to be called the SSN-AUKUS, the successor to the current Astute — and will contain extensive U.S. technology. The first deliveries of that sub will take place in the 2040s, officials said. And the goal is for Australia in that decade to be able to build its own SSN-AUKUS sub, though the nuclear-propulsion technology will be provided by the British or Americans.
The submarines will not carry nuclear weapons.
Australia has committed to a “proportional” investment in U.S. and British industrial capacity, and over the next several decades will be spending more than $100 billion to buy the submarines and build up its own industrial capacity, as well as shore up America’s and Britain’s shipbuilding capability, officials said. (end of excerpt)
(Click here for the full story, on the Washington Post website.)
(ends)
