Ministry Of Defence
Today the Right Honourable John Healey MP, Secretary of State for Defence, United Kingdom hosted the Honourable Richard Marles MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Australia and the Honorable Lloyd J. Austin III, Secretary of Defense, United States (U.S.) at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, the United Kingdom (UK) to review progress in and reaffirm their commitment to the AUKUS partnership.
The AUKUS partnership reflects the continued commitment by Australia, the United Kingdom, and United States to support a free and open Indo-Pacific that is peaceful, secure and stable. The discussions between the Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister today reaffirmed the importance of this innovative, enduring, and trusted partnership in the face of a rapidly evolving and increasingly unstable international security environment. The three nations will continue to work to uphold the global rules-based order where international law is followed, and states can make sovereign choices free from coercion. In this context, they reiterated their shared commitments to the AUKUS partnership for the decades to come and welcomed the progress made since AUKUS Defence Ministers last met in California, the United States, in December 2023.
Pillar I Conventionally Armed, Nuclear-Powered Submarines (SSNs)
In March of 2023, our Heads of Government met to announce a comprehensive plan to support Australias acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability as quickly as possible. Since that announcement, our three governments have worked shoulder-to-shoulder to refine the milestones and principles that will form the building blocks for this decades-long partnership.
The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister reiterated their shared and enduring commitment to setting the highest nuclear non-proliferation standard, and the importance of this work to the success of the programme. They undertook to continue AUKUS partners open, and transparent engagement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and noted the ongoing bilateral negotiations between the IAEA and Australia to develop a robust safeguards and verification approach for Australias naval nuclear propulsion programme under Article 14 of Australias Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA.
Over the last year, our Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Royal Navy (RN), and U.S. Navy personnel have worked tirelessly across governments, defence industry, and academic institutions to optimise the training of personnel to maintain, sustain, operate, and crew nuclear-powered submarines. The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister reiterated that the delivery of the Optimal Pathway depends upon the skilled workforces of all three countries and reaffirmed their shared commitment to develop a robust base of skills across their military, civilian and industrial sectors.
- More than 60 RAN personnel are currently in various stages of the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine SSN training pipeline to equip a cadre of Australian officers and sailors with experience aboard the U.S. Virginia class SSNs that the RAN will own and operate from the early 2030s. These numbers will increase further in 2025, with more than 100 personnel commencing training. Six officers have completed all training and have been assigned to U.S. Virginia class submarines. RAN enlisted sailors will join U.S. submarine crews before the end of this year.
- In the United Kingdom, three RAN officers completed the UK Nuclear Reactor course in July 2024 and are now assigned to UK Astute class submarines. The next group of RAN officers will commence training in the UK in November 2024.
- The RN, with the support of the Australian Submarine Agency, has also delivered professional and general naval nuclear propulsion training for more than 250 Australian personnel in Canberra.
- Australians have embedded into programme delivery teams in the UK Ministry of Defence and with Rolls-Royce Submarines. Australians are also currently embedded in U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program teams.
- In July and September 2024, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard welcomed the first 40 ASC Pty Ltd personnel into its training pipeline with the expectation of more than 100 additional ASC Pty Ltd employees by mid-2025.
- The Australian Government has committed to nearly AUD 250 million to start delivering the skills and workforce needed for its SSN program, including providing 4,001 Commonwealth Supported Places at Australian universities, in addition to 3,000 undergraduate scholarships over six years, to build the necessary Australian Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics workforce.
- Additional programs have seen more than 70 Australians supported to undertake postgraduate nuclear studies at universities in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia.
- Australia has also recently announced the Jobs for Subs initiative, a government-funded program to evolve ASC Pty Ltd to recruit, train and retain approximately 200 additional graduates, apprentices and trainees to support Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West) in Western Australia.
Recognising that our partners in defence industry are and will remain vital to this endeavour, the Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister discussed opportunities to maximize our efforts to foster collaboration and build resilience across our industrial bases and supply chains. They welcome the collaboration between BAE Systems (BAES) and ASC Pty Ltd to bring together their combined decades of submarine building to deliver the SSN-AUKUS programme.
- The U.S. Government decided to invest USD 17.5 billion into its submarine industrial base to support initiatives related to supplier development, shipbuilder and supplier infrastructure, workforce development, technology advancements, and strategic sourcing.
- Australia has also committed to invest over AUD 30 billion in the Australian defence industrial base to develop Australias supply chains and facilitate industry participation in U.S. and UK supply chains.
- His Majestys Government announced an initial allocation of 4 billion from the United Kingdom to continue the detailed design work of SSN-AUKUS and order long-lead items, as well as the United Kingdoms investment of 3 billion across its Defence Nuclear Enterprise, including the construction of submarine industrial infrastructure that will help to deliver the SSN-AUKUS programme.
- The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister welcomed the AUKUS partners commitment to accelerate opportunities for Australian industry in the Virginia class submarine supply chain, including through the Defence Industry Vendor Qualification Program and other industry collaboration initiatives. They welcomed ongoing efforts to encourage further industrial base partnerships to build resiliency across the trilateral Submarine Industrial Base.
- This August, as a direct result of our close collaboration over this year, our three nations commenced the execution of the first-ever planned maintenance activity of a U.S. SSN in Australia. More than 30 RAN personnel worked alongside U.S. Navy and contractor personnel and UK observers to conduct routine maintenance and observe safety and stewardship evolutions. This was an important step in building Australias capacity to support a rotational presence of UK and U.S. SSNs at SRF-West beginning as early as 2027, as well as Australias future sovereign SSN capability.
The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister emphasised the importance of ensuring that our trilateral systems have the tools they need to transfer information and data in a timely fashion to facilitate cooperation. They were pleased to welcome the August 2024 signing of an enabling agreement for trilateral cooperation related to naval nuclear propulsion. Once in force, this historic agreement will enable AUKUS partners to go beyond sharing naval nuclear propulsion information, allowing the United States and the United Kingdom to transfer nuclear-propulsion material and equipment to Australia required for the safe and secure construction, operation, and sustainment of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.
This agreement reaffirms, and remains consistent with, the AUKUS partners respective, existing international non-proliferation obligations. As a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Australia has re-affirmed unequivocally that it does not have, and will not seek to acquire, nuclear weapons.
Pillar II Advanced Capabilities
The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister hailed progress being made under Pillar II to deliver capability to our defence forces while bolstering industry and innovation sector collaboration. AUKUS nations continue to pool the talents of our defence sectors to catalyse, at an unprecedented pace, the delivery of advanced capabilities.
Through AUKUS Pillar II, our trilateral science and technology, acquisition and sustainment, and operational communities are working across the full spectrum of capability developmentgenerating requirements, co-developing new systems, deepening industrial base collaboration, and bolstering our innovation ecosystems. The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister welcomed progress made in building a more capable, combined joint force of the future because of this work.
- This year, under the Maritime Big Play initiative, we are undertaking a series of integrated trilateral experiments and exercises to enhance interoperability and accelerate the combined fielding o