Australia will buy three U.S.-built Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines beginning in the 2030s as part of the tripartite AUKUS deal, the parties said Monday.
AUKUS aims both to create an Australian nuclear submarine force and industrial base and recapitalize the U.S. submarine building industry.
President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak jointly announced the plan’s details in San Diego, 18 months after the parties announced the deal.
“Nuclear propulsion is a highly-complicated technology that requires years of training to master, so we’re starting right away,” Biden said during an announcement ceremony. “Australian personnel will embed with U.S. and U.K. crews on boats and bases, in our schools and our shipyards.”
AUKUS will involve significant investments from all three countries to boost a cooperative naval presence in the Asia-Pacific Region while building up an Australian submarine industrial base, according to senior Biden administration officials who spoke to the press Sunday in a background briefing. The official said Australia’s financial contribution would be “substantial.”
According to a White House fact sheet, “Australia has committed to managing all radioactive waste generated through its nuclear-powered submarine program, including spent nuclear fuel, in Australia.”
Phase one of the AUKUS deal will see an increase of U.S. and U.K. personnel and submarines at Australian naval ports and participating in exercises. Once Australian forces are trained and ready to accept U.S. boats, they will buy three Virginia-class conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines from the United States, with the option to buy two more “if needed,” an administration official said.
The need for nuclear reactors for an additional five Virginia-class subs could mean big business for Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies, which has a virtual monopoly on the work in the U.S. The company’s nuclear reactors also power the U.S. Navy’s Ohio, Virginia, Seawolf and Los Angeles-class submarines as well as its Nimitz and Ford-class aircraft carriers.
“BWXT is strongly supportive of global security given our role as the sole manufacturer of naval nuclear reactors and fuel for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Since the AUKUS announcement has just been released, we are taking the time necessary to properly review the information and its impact on our current and future plans.”
Designated the SSN-AUKUS, eventually operated by both Australia and the U.K., the boats will incorporate U.S.-made propulsion plant technology, a common vertical launch system and other components, according to documents published by the Australian government.
Though it did not specify which nuclear reactor will power SSN-AUKUS boats, Australia said they would have a “high degree of commonality” with U.S. Virginia-class submarines. The two designs will share elements of the propulsion system, combat systems and weapons.
In addition, “[t]he United Kingdom and United States intend to provide Australia with nuclear material in complete, welded nuclear power units that will not require refuelling during their lifetime,” the Australian government in a report posted online this week.
Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. announced AUKUS in September 2021, framing the technology transfer as a way to counter Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region. It also seeks to bolster the three nations’ nuclear submarine industry base, the administration official said.
“The US submarine industrial base is not where it should be,” the official said. “And the Department of Defense is putting forward significant additional resources to lift the submarine industrial base.” Overall, the plan will “require significant improvements and industrial bases in all three countries,” the official added.
“Regarding Australia’s contribution, I would just emphasize that it is going to be a substantial contribution,” the administration official said.
The U.K. then plans to deliver its first submarine SSN-AUKUS, to Australia in the late 2030s, according to the administration official. The plan is for Australia to have its own nuclear submarine production capacity with deliveries beginning in the early 2040s.
SSN-AUKUS will be the future attack submarine for both Australia and the United Kingdom and keels should be laid down in the two countries’ domestic shipyards by the end of the decade.
U.S. industry has shared aspects of the technology with the U.K. since 1958 and the new tripartite deal will both expand the list of shared technologies and extend those to Australia.
