Australia says it will meet ‘challenges’ of AUKUS nuclear submarine timeline

SYDNEY: Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia was “very self-critical” as it looked to address challenges, including skilling its workforce, for the AUKUS nuclear submarine programme, ahead of AUKUS defence ministers meeting in Washington.

A Pentagon review of AUKUS had found areas to put the deal on the “strongest possible footing,” a U.S. official said last week, although the findings have not been made public.

Announced in 2021, AUKUS is Australia’s largest-ever defence project and will see U.S. commanded Virginia submarines based in Australia from 2027, several Virginia submarines sold to Australia from around 2030, and Britain and Australia build a new class of AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine.

Defence ministers from Australia, Britain and the U.S. will meet in Washington on Wednesday local time to discuss “how we can take it forward with urgency”, Marles said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview on Wednesday.

Whether or not Australia is moving fast enough to build its nuclear submarine base, and whether the U.S. can build enough Virginia submarines to meet its own needs, were major themes in the review undertaken by the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

The Pentagon review made recommendations on how “we can do AUKUS better”, Marles said.

He was confident Australia would meet a deadline to host four U.S. Virginia submarines at its Indian Ocean naval base in Perth at the end of 2027, although the “enormous uplift” required was a challenge, he said.

“There are going to be challenges for us around skilling our workforce to be able to do everything that we’re seeking to do, both in terms of building but also maintaining the submarines,” he said.

“We need to be looking at that in a granular way… we continue to do that and be very self-critical along the way,” he added.

Other challenges for AUKUS include building supply chains, and lifting production rates for submarines in the United States, he said.