The Navy last Thursday awarded General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division an initial $197 million contract to support the AUKUS program as it helps Australia set up the capability to build and maintain nuclear-powered attack submarines.
AUKUS is the trilateral framework between the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom to supply nuclear-powered submarines and other nuclear information and technologies to Australia.
The Pentagon’s April 23 announcement said the contract is being used to “support engineering, technical, design agent and design transfer activities for nuclear submarine capabilities and their sustainment, in support of foreign military sales requirements,” a nod to helping Australia develop its submarine capabilities.
Most of the work will be focused on Electric Boat’s Groton, Conn., facility and is expected to be completed by April 2027. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would raise the total value to over $930 million and extend work through April 2031.
Notably, the announcement said funding is exclusively being directed via “Foreign Partner funds,” with $28 million obligated at the time of award.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee, said this means the funding is coming from the $2 billion of a total planned $3 billion in Australian government funds given to the U.S. to help bolster the submarine industrial base.
“These funds, which come from Australia’s $3 billion investment into the U.S. submarine industrial base, are proof that AUKUS is not just a plan on white boards but a real enterprise that eastern Connecticut will make a success,” Courtney said in a statement.
Courtney also boasted this “first in kind contract” is proof the AUKUS program is “powerful evidence that this security program, authorized by Congress in 2023, is tangibly moving forward.”
Courtney’s district includes the Groton-based shipyard.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.