Inside a virginia class submarine7/22/2023 ![]() “Australia is a proud non-nuclear weapons state, and it’s committed to stay that way,” Mr Biden said. “Forging this new partnership, we’re showing again how democracies can deliver, how our own security and prosperity and not just for us but for the world,” he said.Īustralia will become just the seventh country to have nuclear-powered submarines, which Mr Biden was at pains to point out was different to being nuclear armed. Mr Biden said the US could ask for “no better partners” in the Indo-Pacific than Australia and the UK, noting the region is where “so much of our shared future will be written”. Picture: POIS Yuri Ramsey/Australian Defence Force via Getty Images The US Navy Virginia-class submarine is expected to operate out of Australia from 2027. “This is a genuine trilateral undertaking – all three nations stand ready to contribute and all three nations stand ready to benefit.” ![]() “It’s also about drawing and building on the expertise within our three nations so that we can achieve things greater than the sum of our parts,” Mr Albanese said. ![]() In making the announcement in San Diego, Mr Albanese said AUKUS was more than just the UK and the US sharing “their most advanced submarine capability”. To plug the capability gap, some of Australia’s Collins-class submarines will have their life extended, ensuring the fleet is kept “operationally capable and available” into the 2040s.Īustralia will purchase between three and five Virginia-class submarines from the United States from early next decade to be based out of Perth.Īustralia’s first SSN-AUKUS submarines, made in Adelaide, will be delivered by the early 2040s, years after the UK delivers its first vessels. Over the life of the project it will create more than 20,000 direct jobs, with the cost projected to hit between $268bn and $368bn by 2054/55. The three partners said AUKUS would be instrumental in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, but Mr Sunak said in the last 18 months, the challenges Western democracies faced had grown. ![]() “We must fully promote the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces, and build the people’s armed forces into a great wall of steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security and development interests,” he said. He addressed the National People’s Congress on Monday saying the military would be bolstered to create a “great wall of steel”, labelled security the “bedrock of development” and accused Western colonial powers of “national humiliation”. Mr Marles said the program was the biggest leap in Australia’s capability in history, and was made against a backdrop of an increasingly complex strategic landscape, namely the rapid rise of China’s army.īut Chinese president Xi Jinping, speaking on the eve of the AUKUS announcement, warned Australia was making an “expensive mistake” and that Beijing would continue to grow its military to counter the perceived threat. The program will feature at least three submarines to be purchased from the US, upgrades to extend the life of the existing fleet, with at least five UK-designed vessels with US-technology to be built in Adelaide by the 2040s. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, alongside British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and American President Joe Biden in San Diego announced the historic AUKUS deal on Tuesday, which will cost between $268b and $368b by the 2050s, with homemade nuclear submarines to be ready by 2042. Australia offered a briefing to China before it made its $368bn AUKUS announcement, but whether or not Beijing took up the opportunity remains unknown.ĭefence Minister Richard Marles said he wasn’t aware of China’s response just a day after Beijing’s mouthpiece outlet, The Global Times, warned Australia was “planting a time bomb”.
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