On Monday, the United Kingdom’s defense minister said the government plans to ultimately field 12 SSN-AUKUS attack submarines.
Minster of Defense John Healey’s assessment came in the foreword of a new defense review report.
Under the tripartite AUKUS agreement, the United States and U.K. agree to help Australia field nuclear-powered attack submarines, starting with at least three Virginia-class submarines and ultimately domestically build and operate a force of SSN-AUKUS attack submarines. Australia and the U.K. are set to share the SSN-AUKUS design, even if built in their own countries separately, with the U.K. delivering theirs in the later 2030s before Australia gets its first boat in the 2040s.
The new U.K. 2025 Strategic Defense Review argues the country’s defense architecture and outlook has to change and update for new times, partially inspired by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other changing international security threats.
While the report provided dozens of conclusions and recommendations, it said by 2035 the U.K. would need be a “leading tech-enabled defense power, with an Integrated Force that deters, fights and wins through constant innovation at wartime pace.”
Included are recommendations that the government sustain long-term support for nuclear-powered attack submarines through confirming the intended numbers of attack submarines “as soon as possible to provide the necessary assumptions for the required build capacity and tempo.”
Minster of Defense Healey essentially responded in his foreword statement that the government will commit to continuous submarine production through industrial investments that will allow a new submarine to be produced every 18 months and the number of future SSNs they plan to field.
“Through the AUKUS program, this will allow us to grow our nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet to up to 12. This will reinforce our Continuous at Sea Deterrent (CASD) and position the U.K. to deliver the AUKUS partnership with the US and Australia,” Healey wrote.
Healey’s push for 12 SSN-AUKUS boats in the Royal Navy is a significant increase from the current force, which plans to reach seven Astute-class attack submarines by 2026. The sixth boat in the class is planned to be commissioned later than planned this year, with the final boat, the future HMD Achilles (S125), set to be commissioned in 2026.
The report also warned that the government must also commit to not extend the life of the future four-boat Dreadnought-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine past their intended end-of-service life starting in the mid 2050s. This is aimed at avoiding repeating previous extension costs.
A version of this story was first published by Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily.