By Peter Roberts Perth international shipbuilder Austal has won new work in the US submarine construction field, opening the way for it to become a component supplier to future Aukus nation submarine builds. In a brief announcement Austal said it had been awarded a time and material contract by...
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Hundreds of Australian companies are likely to be bought into the supply chain to help service US submarines, if they meet exacting standards.
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Australia to become subs hub for US Navy under AUKUS agreement
Australia is poised to become a major western Pacific hub for maintaining US submarines under the AUKUS deal as part of a boost to America’s presence in the region while Canberra waits for nuclear-powered submarines of its own to be delivered.
Hundreds of Australian companies are likely to be brought into the supply chain to help sustain visiting submarines, provided they meet strict quality assurance and security standards demanded by the US, including not using Chinese-made parts.
The ramp-up in industrial activity will also upskill Australian firms to play a role in building nuclear submarines locally, multiple sources say.
The Australian Financial Review has also been told that the three nuclear submarine builders – Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries in the US, and BAE Systems in the UK – have also agreed to take up to 250 Australian workers at each of their shipyards to be trained in nuclear-powered submarine construction.
Those workers, which are likely to include engineers and supervisors, could head overseas as soon as mid-year and will begin to form the core of the Australian nuclear submarine workforce.
“There will be a full smorgasbord of people going across,” one source said.
The Albanese government is expected to unveil in March what it has described as the “optimal pathway” for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines with help from the US and UK under the AUKUS pact.
Experts believe it might not be until the late 2030s at the earliest that the Australian navy receives nuclear-powered submarines that can be fully crewed and commanded by Australians.
That challenge of building submarines was magnified last month when US Democrat senator Jack Reed, who chairs the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, and his former Republican opposite James Inhofe wrote to US President Joe Biden warning the
American submarine industrial base could be pushed to “breaking point” because of AUKUS.
The lengthy wait for an Australian-controlled boat, as well as the need to train Australian sailors and establish a domestic regime to support nuclear-powered submarines, will result in interim measures to mitigate the risk of a capability gap.
These are likely to include the
deployment of at least two US nuclear submarines to be based out of Perth, home to Australia’s Collins class submarine fleet.
One suggestion is they will be younger boats of the ageing Los Angeles class submarine either loaned or leased to Australia, which would be more politically palatable from a US perspective than sharing the more modern Virginia class.
US Congress last month passed a defence budget that specifically refers to studying the provision of “legacy United States submarines” for Australia’s use.
But sources said it was anticipated additional US submarines would also make more regular stopovers in Perth.
The Pentagon is pursuing a policy of dispersing US forces in the Pacific to offer greater protection in the event of conflict with China. The US Navy currently operates submarines out of Guam, a prime target for a potential attack, and beefing up a submarine support base in Perth would put them out of range.
Making Perth a hub for submarine operations would allow planned maintenance to be undertaken, as well as urgent repairs, one source said. Some maintenance of the Collins class submarines is already undertaken at Perth’s Henderson shipyard.
The source estimated up to 1500 Australian firms would need to be upskilled to help support submarine operations, which will require an injection of government funding. Some would be homegrown firms, while others may American or British subsidiaries.
“This is a whole new level of doing business,” the source said.
Another source said a lot of engagement was required with the supply chain but “you can pump prime the system by building it up”.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the AUKUS announcement remained on track for the first quarter of the year. “What we’ve done with the US and the UK is genuinely a collaborative effort.”
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