US submarine construction up to three years behind schedule raises more questions over AUKUS pact

Washington: The US has vowed to do what it takes to sell Australia the nuclear submarines promised under the controversial AUKUS deal, despite a new internal US Navy investigation finding construction delays of up to three years.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has also revealed the deal could soon be expanded to other countries such as Japan, Canada or New Zealand to allow collaboration on advanced technologies including hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence and quantum computing – in what is known as “Pillar Two” of the trilateral agreement between Australia, the UK and the US.

Anthony Albanese, Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak at an AUKUS announcement in San Diego in March last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I think it was always believed when AUKUS was launched, that at some point, we would welcome new countries to participate … and I think you’ll hear that we have something to say about that next week,” said Campbell, flagging a “historic” national security agreement that President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce in Washington.

“There will also be further engagement among the three defence ministers of the United States, Australia and Great Britain as they focus on this effort as well.”

Campbell’s comments come a year after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Biden met in San Diego to outline plans for AUKUS. The deal was first announced in 2021 as part of a broader strategy to counter China’s economic and military advances in the Indo-Pacific.

But the project has come under question recently, after the US Navy revealed it removed an attack submarine from its 2025 spending plan, in a tacit recognition that American shipbuilding yards are struggling with the pace of producing and maintaining the national fleet.

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ shipbuilding yard in Newport News, Virginia.Credit: AFR

The proposed cut prompted fears about the viability of AUKUS, which requires the US maintain a production rate of 2.33 submarines a year to have enough to sell any to Australia.

And in a further blow this week, an internal navy assessment found that the two types of Virginia-class submarines currently under construction in the US were running late by between 24 months and 36 months.

Despite the hurdles, Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, appeared on a conservative podcast on Wednesday to talk up the agreement and convince listeners it was a “good deal for America”.

Speaking on The Hugh Hewitt Show – two weeks after he was attacked by former president Donald Trump, who is an occasional guest on the program – Rudd said AUKUS would enhance shipbuilding jobs and investment in the US.

He also said he believed that production would ramp up in coming years, and that the attack subs promised under the deal could be delivered, as planned, by the 2030s, which he described as “the decade of living dangerously in terms of the Indo-Pacific”.

“The geography in Australia helps the allied strategic interest on this as well,” said the former prime minister, who is considered a leading China expert.

Speaking separately at a Centre for New American Security forum, Campbell also linked AUKUS and Taiwan. He said the new submarine capabilities would enhance peace and stability, including in the Taiwan Strait which separates China and the island it claims as its own.

The new submarine capabilities “have enormous implications in a variety of scenarios, including in cross-strait circumstances,” Campbell said.

“I would argue that working closely with other nations, not just diplomatically but in defence avenues, has the consequence of strengthening peace and stability more generally,” he added.

Campbell said the US would find a way to deliver its commitment to Australia, and that momentum for the deal would “continue under almost any political circumstance” – a reference to anxiety over the future of the pact under a second Trump presidency.

Acknowledging that US submarine production had slowed due to pandemic supply chains, he said that Australia’s “very generous” $3 billion contribution to the US shipbuilding industry had helped, but noted that “to undertake this work, it will require new investments and probably again, new capabilities here in the United States over time”.

The White House’s new deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.Credit: Andrew Taylor

But he added: “I think it would be fair to say there’s been substantial focus on this at senior levels of the White House, the Defence Department – it’s natural home – and the State Department.”

“AUKUS, in many respects, is a game changer,” Campbell said. “It is basically finding the way forward.”

with AAP

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