Biden and allies unveil nuclear-powered submarine plan for Australia
The leaders of the United States, Australia and Britain on Monday unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
In a joint statement, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak endorsed plans for the so-called AUKUS project, first announced in 2021, at the US naval base in San Diego, California, principal home port of the US Pacific Fleet.
Under the deal, the United States intends to sell Australia three US Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines, which are built by General Dynamics, in the early 2030s, with an option to buy two more if needed, the joint statement said.
The statement from the leaders said the multi-stage project would culminate with British and Australian production and operation of a new class of submarine - SSN-AUKUS - a "trilaterally developed" vessel based on Britain's next-generation design that would be built in Britain and Australia and include "cutting edge" US technologies.
Britain will take delivery of its first SSN-AUKUS submarine in the late 2030s, and Australia would receive its first in the early 2040s, Albanese and the British statement said.
The vessels will be built by BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, the British statement said.
The agreement will also see US and British submarines deployed in Western Australia to help train Australian crews and bolster deterrence, a senior US official said. The joint statement said the United States and Britain would begin these rotational deployments as soon as 2027 and the official said this would increase to four U.S. submarines and one British in a few years.
Biden told Albanese that its deal on nuclear-powered attack submarines was a "game changer".
"And I think that it's going to be a game changer in my view. And I think that that coupled with the Quad, which we are part of including Japan and India, that we have the ability to expand the maritime domain of democracy and peace, stability and security. That's important."
At the ceremony in San Diego, Biden stressed that the submarines would be nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed.
Reuters
