The ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee on Tuesday reported the Australian officials are “buoyant and bullish” about AUKUS moving forward following a Monday meeting between President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) also thinks an ongoing Pentagon review of the submarine agreement is probably focused on improving the industrial base rather than truncating planned U.S. submarine sales to Australia.
“I think that what we heard yesterday in the East Room was just really pretty significant commitment and endorsement by an administration that, again, was from the opposing party from the prior administration when AUKUS was first brought to the public light, and now it’s clearly the policy of the Trump administration, just like it happened in both the U.K. and Australia,” Courtney said. The lawmaker was referring to the meeting with Trump and Albanese, told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. “I mean, this plan has shown some real endurance despite the shifts in political winds.”
Courtney serves as a co-chair of the bipartisan Friends of Australia Caucus and his district includes the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn. That’s where construction of Virginia and Columbia-class submarines takes place. GD shares production of submarines with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding facility in Virginia.
Courtney also stressed that when asked about the Pentagon review of AUKUS, Trump referred to it as mere details. The congressman said he looks forward to seeing any improvements that may come from the review.
“Not having seen the report and you know, this thing was really kind of operating under the cone of silence, the review… there’s been a lot of work that other outside experts have been brought in over the last five months or so, and whether or not there’s going to be maybe even a consideration of a change of schedule compared to the 2032 year or something remains to be seen,” Courtney continued.
This was a reference to the current AUKUS plan that has the U.S. selling Australia at least three used and new Virginia-class attack submarines in the 2030s, with the first set for 2032. The schedule aims to help Australia compensate for the retirement of the Collins-class sub and act as a bridge until Australia can begin producing and fielding its SSN-AUKUS submarines in the 2040s.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this article.