Australia, UK visit port that will house future nuclear submarines

The shipyard where future AUKUS nuclear submarines will be built for the Royal Navy was visited by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Wednesday.

Last month, the US, Australia, and the UK unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the early 2030s to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

Australia and the UK will both build the new submarines, known as ‘SSN-AUKUS’, to the “world-leading British-led design,” according to a press release published by the UK Defence Ministry on Wednesday.

“The SSN-AUKUS submarines will protect the Euro-Atlantic region for decades to come – and with their interoperable submarine design, will ensure mutual compatibility with our Australian and US allies – alongside supporting jobs across the UK and demonstrating the experience and skill which embodies British industry,” said Wallace.

The UK, which left the EU in 2020, says AUKUS will help boost its economy’s low growth rate. Sunak said AUKUS was “binding ties to our closest allies and delivering security, new technology and economic advantage at home.”

Indeed, as announced at the Budget in March, an additional £5 billion will be provided to the government over the next two years, some of which will be spent on “modernising the UK’s nuclear enterprise and funding the next phase of the AUKUS submarine programme,” according to the press release, which added that this would be followed by sustained funding across the next decade to support the SSN-AUKUS programme.

In September 2021, Australia cancelled an order for conventional submarines from France and instead decided to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology.

The package deal also included a security partnership with those countries under the name AUKUS.

The incident had triggered a strong reaction in Paris which accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of continuing his predecessor Donald Trump’s trends of “unilateralism, unpredictability, brutality and not respecting your partner.”

(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)