British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says building Canberra’s fleet of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact is likely to be a tri-nation project,raising expectations Australia,the United Kingdom and United States will jointly develop a new generation of boats.
Wallace appeared confident the and the development of any new fleet that was common to all three navies.
Defence Minister Richard Marles is awaiting the recommendations of the federal government’s nuclear-powered submarine taskforce,due within weeks,before announcing the model it will adopt.
With recent to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia as they work to meet their own needs, it would involve significant input from both the UK and US.
Wallace,who met with his Australian and US counterparts at the Pentagon in December,reiterated in an interview on Thursday the submarine capability would be delivered as part of a joint project.
“The Australian government’s getting exactly to the position where it knows what it wants,” Wallace said. “I’m pretty confident that it will be a tri-nation project.”
The UK has begun design work on its next generation of submarines to succeed its Astute-class fleet.
The future submarine class,dubbed the SSNR (submersible ship nuclear replacement),could serve as the starting point for any new trilateral submarine.
Wallace cautioned Australia’s acquisition would take years to deliver and said critical steps to build up the local skills base and infrastructure,such aswere under way.
“No one’s going to press a button and magic up a submarine,” he said. “We are growing our workforce from 10,000 to 17,000 to build ours and eventually[that] will be part of the Australia program – that is a big program,but it’s also a great economic stimulus for that part of Australia – there will be thousands of jobs in high-tech and engineering.”