The newly announced contract has been awarded to General Dynamics.
Australia’s nuclear-submarine acquisition plan is inching a step closer to reality with the United States’ new contract.
The new $US197 million contract from the US Department of Defense is set to support the AUKUS pact. The deal aims to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.
The latest $197 million contract is for engineering and design work to support the transfer of nuclear-powered submarine capabilities from the US to Australia.
Nuclear-powered submarine capability
On March 13, 2023, AUKUS (US, UK, and Australia) partners announced an optimal pathway to produce a nuclear-powered submarine capability in Australia at the earliest point while ensuring all three partners maintain the highest non-proliferation standards.
The newly announced contract awarded to General Dynamics Electric Boat is for engineering work to support the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.
Contract will be covered by Australian government’s payment
The $197 million contract will be covered by the Australian government’s payment of $3 billion, made to the US under AUKUS. The contract includes options that could take its cumulative value to $930 million. To sell submarines to Australia, the US Navy is aiming to almost double the pace of construction, to 2.33 boats per year. But the pace of production had slowed to 1.1 boats per year, reported ABC News.
In September 2021, leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States announced the creation of an enhanced trilateral security partnership called “AUKUS.”
AUKUS to strengthen the ability of each government to support security and defense interests
AUKUS is intended to strengthen the ability of each government to support security and defense interests, building on longstanding and ongoing bilateral ties. It will promote deeper information sharing and technology sharing, and foster deeper integration of security and defense-related science, technology, industrial bases, and supply chains.
The US Navy has been procuring Virginia (SSN-774) class SSNs since FY1998, and a total of 41 have been procured through FY2025.
From FY-2011 through FY-2024, they were procured at a rate of two per year. A single Virginia-class boat was procured in FY-2025. When procured at a rate of two per year, they have an estimated procurement cost under the Navy’s FY2026 budget submission of about $5.0 billion each. The Navy’s FY2026 budget submission requested the procurement of two more Virginia-class boats.
Under the AUKUS, the US will rotationally deploy four U.S. SSNs and one UK SSN out of a port in Western Australia, more significantly, sell three to five Virginia-class SSNs to Australia and subsequently build three to five replacement SSNs for the U.S. Navy.
The United States and the UK will also provide assistance to Australia for an Australian effort to build three to five more SSNs of a new UK-Australian SSN design to complete a planned eight-boat Australian SSN force.
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Prabhat, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, is a tech and defense journalist. While he enjoys writing on modern weapons and emerging tech, he has also reported on global politics and business. He has been previously associated with well-known media houses, including the International Business Times (Singapore Edition) and ANI.