There are things the U.S. and Australia can do to make the AUKUS security agreement stronger and more sustainable, a Defense Department official said Tuesday.
During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), John Noh, nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, also confirmed a review of the trilateral effort by leadership is ongoing. Noh said he does not want to “get ahead” of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth or Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby in terms of what might come out of the review.
However, Noh said his personal view is “there are things that I believe, common sense things, that we can do to strengthen AUKUS, to strengthen Pillar I, to ensure that it is more sustainable.”
Noh added, “as the findings of the review come out, I believe Under Secretary Colby and Secretary Hegseth will have an opportunity to discuss specific recommendations as to how to strengthen pillar one and make it more sustainable.”
Noh currently serves as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for East Asia. He also said if confirmed, he intends to be “the biggest advocate to my leadership in the department to making sure that we have all the resources we need to strengthen deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.”
The AUKUS agreement provides for the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia to increase cooperation on helping Australia develop the capability to field, sustain and build its own nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) in Pillar I. Pillar II is related to other non-submarine maritime technology cooperation.
Under Pillar I, the U.S. plans to sell Australia three to five Virginia-class attack submarines in the 2030s. However, Navy officials have said in order to make up for the baseline of three submarine Australian sales, SSN production needs to increase from the current 1.2 submarines per year level to 2.33 per year. The Navy has targeted two SSNs per year as what it needs to meet its own current long-term targets.
In response to questions from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Noh reiterated Adm. Daryl Caudle, now chief of naval operations, testified before the committee that the submarine industrial base “will need to go through a transformational improvement in production capacity, not a 10%, not a 20%, but 100 % improvement in production capacity.”
“These are the issues, Senator, that we are looking into as part of the AUKUS review, as well as whether it’s properly funded, and I know there are significant investments that have been made from both the U.S. side and in addition to the contributions that Australia has made as part of pillar one,” Noh said. “So the department continues to conduct a review of AUKUS.”
Sen. Jeane Shaheen (D-N.H.) argued the Donald Trump administration is “still fiddling around with a review that should have been done months ago,” as a point for looking unreliable to American partners.
Noh countered that Australia and the U.K. both conducted their own reviews when new administrations came into office and the U.S. DoD review started in July and it plans to conclude this fall.
Shaheen said the government should “have some urgency” when dealing with issues related to countering China’s growing military capabilities.
Notably, SASC chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) added the AUKUS review itself was “a surprise to this committee, to the Congress and to the general public, and as a distressing surprise to our steadfast ally, Australia.”
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published this story.