The three countries plan to discuss their pact on Monday on board this Virginia-class submarine.
(Photo: AP)
Washington If implemented as planned, the submarine deal between Australia, Britain and the US will be the largest defense technology pact in modern history.
“We must maintain stability in the Indo-Pacific,” a senior US official said Sunday night. The importance of the security agreement could not be higher: “There are threats that are increasingly endangering the international order,” he said.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce details of the new military alliance for the first time. They want to meet aboard the submarine USS Missouri in San Diego, California.
The plan, known by its acronym Aukus, was announced in September 2021. At that time, Australia joined the USA and Great Britain with the aim of equipping the Australian military with nuclear submarines.
At the time, the announcement of an Indo-Pacific security pact caused serious irritation between the United States and France, as it broke a French submarine deal with Australia worth $40 billion.
Now, almost 18 months later, the countries involved are giving an insight into the next steps for the first time. According to the White House, Aukus will develop in three phases:
- stage 1: Australia to get three American fighter submarines, “two more if needed,” US official says. The US Navy’s so-called Virginia class is highly modern and nuclear powered. Each of these submarines costs around 3 billion US dollars. According to the schedule, the first submarine should be delivered to Australia in 2032. Australian submarine crews are already on the ground in the US and UK to train for the mission.
- stage 2: Britain is developing an entirely new class of submarines, named SSN-AUKUS, which incorporates extensive US technology. According to the White House, the first deliveries of this type should take place in the 2040s.
- stage 3: The aim is for Australia to be able to build its own SSN Aukus submarines afterwards. The nuclear propulsion technology is provided by the British or Americans. The submarines are not equipped with nuclear weapons.
- tech cooperation: The agreement also includes cooperation in the further development of artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons and quantum technology. The US government official spoke of a “sensitive, sophisticated technological cooperation that has never existed in this form before.”
According to experts, one hurdle lies in the exchange of information. Both the US Congress and the UK Parliament must allow countries to share their secret nuclear propulsion systems with Australia, writes Foreign Policy magazine. Technology transfers are strictly regulated by the so-called International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Another problem is the state of the American shipbuilding industry, which is already stretched. The two US submarine yards are suffering from capacity and staffing problems. Currently, they can’t even keep up with the US Navy’s target of producing three submarines a year, writes The Washington Post.
The British head of government wants to meet US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Albanese at the naval base.
(Photo: AP)
Biden presented his draft US budget last week. It envisages $2.4 billion over the next four years to increase submarine production and $2.2 billion by 2028 to increase maintenance capacity.
Australia has also committed to investing “proportionately” in the US and UK defense industries, the US official said.
China has sharply criticized the agreement
The Aukus Pact is considered one of the Biden government’s most important security policy initiatives to counter China’s growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific. The US government sees its intentions to invest in the defense industry strengthened by the Ukraine war and the military exercises in the South China Sea.
“Peace and stability are increasingly being called into question,” the US administration official said. “Not only through developments in China, but also in other countries like North Korea and Russia, which are also militarily active in the Pacific.”
According to experts, China maintains 79 submarines.
(Photo: AP)
In the long term, Australia could become the US’s most important base near China: Aukus is the launch pad for a submarine hub from which the Navy can “monitor the full spectrum of underwater activities in the Asia-Pacific region,” US officials said. Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro to the Defense News portal.
According to Foreign Policy, China has the world’s largest underwater fleet of 79 submarines. Australia does not yet have its own nuclear-powered submarine fleet, only diesel-powered submarines. That should now change with Aukus. Nuclear-powered submarines can stay underwater indefinitely, only surfacing to replenish food for the crew.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the pact last week. The agreement was driven by a “Cold War mentality” and violated international disarmament efforts, a spokeswoman said.
The relationship between the world powers USA and China had recently deteriorated rapidly. In early February, the launch of a Chinese surveillance balloon over US airspace triggered a diplomatic crisis.
For several weeks, the US government has also been warning of China supplying arms to Russia for the Ukraine war and is trying to win allies for possible sanctions.
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