Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) hosted an Australian delegation at its Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division last week in support of the trilateral AUKUS agreement, the company announced on its website.
Richard Marles, Australia’s deputy prime minister and minister for defence, led the delegation.
“It was fantastic to see the U.S. submarine industrial base on display at Newport News Shipbuilding,” Marles said in the company release, adding that “the Australian Government is pleased to be working with HII, including through the Australian Submarine Supplier Qualification Program (AUSS-Q) to identify and qualify Australian businesses into the U.S. supply chain.”
NNS builds and designs nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S., and HII’s Mission Technologies Global Security Team currently works with Australia to bring the company’s nuclear-powered submarine expertise, workforce and programs to Australia, the release said.
“We are honored Deputy Prime Minister Marles and the Australian delegation could see how our longstanding nuclear experience at NNS directly supports the AUKUS mission,” Eric Chewning, HII’s executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy, said in the release. “Industrial integration of submarine and shipbuilding capabilities between the U.S., U.K. and Australia is a critical component of the AUKUS partnership, enabling aligned defense production, workforce development, and supply chain collaboration to support shared security objectives.”
The AUKUS agreement between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia includes the future sale of Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia. The agreement also just passed a Pentagon review that said it could move “full steam ahead.”