A casual sailor enjoying a day on Fremantle Harbour could easily mistake the half-submerged nuclear submarine for a navigation marker – oblivious to the fact they are just a few hundred metres away from one of the United States military’s most prized assets.
Stealthiness, after all, is the submariner’s superpower.
“We want to be undisclosed, unknown wherever we are in the world,” says Jeffrey Cornielle, commanding officer of the USS Minnesota, one of the US Navy’s 24 Virginia-class fast-attack submarines. “That’s the No.1 thing.”
US Navy personnel stand guard aboard the USS Minnesota during its visit to Fremantle.Credit: Getty Images
It’s a glistening early autumn morning, and this masthead, alongside a handful of other media outlets, has been invited for a rare tour of a visiting Virginia-class submarine. Each boat costs around $8 billion to build and houses a crew of 140 people. Cornielle, matter of factly, describes the Virginia class as the world’s most advanced and capable military vessel.
Yes, aircraft carriers look impressive, but they bob along on the surface, vulnerable to attack. Hunter-killer submarines such as these have been dubbed the “apex predators” of 21st-century naval warfare. They prowl the ocean’s depths, forcing potential adversaries to second-guess their war-fighting plans.
“If someone wakes up and says ‘is today the day?’ we make sure they say ‘maybe not’,” Cornielle explains as we cram together for a briefing in the officers’ wardroom. Space here, like everywhere aboard, is scarce. In an emergency, the dining room table we are sitting at can be used to treat sick or injured crew members.
The USS Minnesota has been conducting training operations off Western Australia for the past three weeks. The submarine’s long-planned arrival happened to coincide with a Chinese naval flotilla conducting a circumnavigation of the continent, offering a powerful symbol of the increasingly contested region in which Australia finds itself.
Military experts said it was possible the flotilla was travelling with a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine, which would have remained underwater for the entire mission. Cornielle declines to comment on China’s naval capability, even though it is the crucial factor driving US defence priorities.
USS Minnesota’s visit has also come amid renewed debate about the future of the AUKUS submarine pact, which it is estimated will cost up to $368 billion by the time Australia’s subs are in operation in the 2040s. President Donald Trump’s treatment of allies such as Canada and the decision to reject Australia’s pleas for an exemption from steel and aluminium tariffs has convinced many that the US has become an unreliable partner.
Credit: Matt Golding
Last week, former Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie called on the government to urgently prepare a plan B in case the pact goes belly-up.
Off the coast of WA, however, AUKUS Plan A is proceeding at pace. Visits like this are ramping up ahead of 2027, when up to four US nuclear-powered submarines are set to be based at Perth in a presence to be known as Submarine Rotational Force-West. Then, from the early 2030s, Australia is scheduled to acquire three Virginia-class submarines from the US as the nation begins phasing out its fleet of ageing, diesel-powered Collins-class submarines.
Accompanying us is Captain Neil Steinhagen, who admits he was not a fan of AUKUS at first.
“Australia’s going to steal my resources, my parts, my people,” the 32-year US Navy veteran tells us, explaining his initial fears about the submarine pact. The US military is not producing enough submarines to meet its own stated needs, yet it has agreed to sell some of its crown jewels to Australia.
Captain Neil Steinhagen, commander of the US Navy’s Submarine Squadron 15, atop USS Minnesota.Credit: AFP
Steinhagen commands a fleet of five nuclear-powered submarines headquartered at the US naval base, Guam, in the west Pacific. USS Minnesota joined his fleet last November – the first time a Virginia-class submarine has been forward-deployed at Guam, a tiny US territory closer to Beijing than Hawaii. The military base helps the US to project power into contested areas such as the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
“In a time of conflict, this is where we would replenish, repair and re-arm,” he says.
He was concerned that AUKUS would pull resources away from Guam but has embraced it as a way to promote stability throughout the Indo-Pacific. Cornielle, meanwhile, says his sailors are excited about becoming more integrated with the Australian Navy: “It’s going to bring a lot of energy to the fleet.”
What will Australia acquire under AUKUS? “The best submarine in the world,” Steinhagen says.
Virginia-class submarines can travel almost twice as fast as the Australian Collins-class boats. Because of their nuclear reactors, they can stay underwater for a virtually unlimited time, constrained only by the need to restock food. Two crew members tell us they have spent up to 102 days underwater without seeing sunlight.
In the submarine’s control room, we see two rows of radar and sonar operators staring at screens and listening to sound through their headphones. The technology surrounding us, Cornielle explains, is as complex as you would find on the International Space Station. The Virginia class was the first in the world to use photonic sensors instead of a traditional periscope. They are operated by a converted Xbox controller, allowing the crew to see what is happening above the surface.
The crew of Minnesota, Cornielle says, takes its connection to the Midwestern state “very much to heart”. As we walk through the submarine, we see Minnesota-themed paraphernalia, like a Minnesota Vikings football helmet. Viking artwork is painted on the walls of the dining hall, reflecting the state’s Scandinavian history, and the crew are encouraged to take inspiration from the Vikings’ prowess.
In the Valhalla Cafe – the submarine’s galley – the chefs prepare surf and turf for Sundays, tacos on Tuesdays and pizzas for Saturday movie nights. In the torpedo room, we see racks of torpedoes stacked above each other and look through one of the submarine’s four torpedo tubes with the help of a flashlight.
As we exit the vessel, we pass a signed letter from the head of the US Navy thanking the submarine’s crew for executing a secret mission described as vital to American national security. We’ve seen the world in which submariners operate up close, but their combat duties remain cloaked in mystery.
As we return to Perth on a charter boat, the USS Minnesota and its crew disappear rapidly from view.
Steinhagen stresses that Australia is not just acquiring an upgraded bit of military kit through AUKUS but a transformative capability requiring a “whole different mindset”.
That includes the responsibility of becoming trustworthy stewards of American nuclear propulsion technology. “We have to get this right,” he says.
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