Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced Tuesday it was adding the U.K.’s Westley Group as a strategic supplier to support the U.S. submarine industrial base under the AUKUS agreement.
The announcement was made by the submarine manufacturer during day one of the Indo Pacific International Maritime Expo in Sydney, Australia. According to a release on HII’s website, the collaboration was made under the AUKUS framework, a trilateral agreement between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia to strengthen cooperation on helping Australia develop the capability to field its own nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Westley Group currently manufactures high-integrity metal castings in the U.K. and HII has now approved it to deliver “critical castings” for U.S. Navy platforms like nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
HII argued this proves the companies’ commitment to expanding industrial integration across all three partners to build a more resilient submarine supply chain.
“Consistent with the need to have a more integrated supply chain, creating this new supplier that builds essential components adds to the incremental volume required to construct more submarines to meet national security needs,” said Matt Mulherin Jr., HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division vice president of supply chain and strategic sourcing, in the release. “This benefits everyone in the partnership and is a key step toward strengthening and creating a more robust supplier network to meet the expanded need for nuclear-powered submarines.”
HII has been beefing up its presence among the AUKUS partners, especially since President Donald Trump and Australian President Anthony Albanese signified both countries were, as Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) put it in an Armed Services committee hearing Tuesday, “full speed ahead on AUKUS.”
HII is already also managing the Australian government’s Australian Submarine Supplier Qualification Pilot to provide more ways for Australian small and medium enterprises to access the American Virginia-class attack submarine supply chain. Last month, the Australian government doubled its investment in the pilot project.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.