Bipartisan support in US helping fuel AUKUS impetus

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with US President Joe Biden after the AUKUS summit in March 2023 in San Diego, California. Picture: PMO

In the closing days of the 118th US congress, passage of the National Defence Authorisation Act revealed once again that the three-year-old trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States has strong bipartisan support.

Each NDAA enacted since the rollout of AUKUS in September 2021 has steadily and surely authorised and implemented the building blocks to make the vision of this unique enterprise a reality.

After the initial announcement in September 2021, it was clear there were significant legal barriers in US law that, if left untended, would prevent the three nations from reaching AUKUS’s ambitious goals.

Only the US congress and the Australian and UK parliaments could enact the necessary reforms to share the jealously guarded “Crown Jewels” of each nation’s national security apparatus.

Beginning in 2022, all three nations moved quickly to start joint training of Australian naval officers and sailors who needed to upskill in the operation of nuclear-powered naval vessels.

The US congress authorised such training for Aussie personnel through a provision proposed by former congressman Michael Gallagher (R-WI) and I. The UK began a similar program as well.

Today more than a hundred Australian sailors and officers have graduated from the US nuclear submarine schools in South Carolina and Connecticut, and this past summer, the Virginia-class submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) had, for the first time, an Australian officer at the helm as it arrived in Perth to receive maintenance.

In 2023, after the release of the AUKUS “Optimal Pathway” plan jointly designed by the navy leadership of all three nations, congress’s “to-do list” grew significantly. The Pathway called for the US to authorise the sale of Virginia-class submarines to Australia, accept Australia’s $3bn investment into the US submarine industrial base, train Australians in submarine maintenance, streamline technology and information sharing, and make the UK and Australia eligible for accelerated investment by the US Department of Defence in Pillar Two projects.

Remarkably, despite the sprawling size of this legislative agenda spread across multiple committee jurisdictions, the House and Senate found a way to bundle this package in just six months within the NDAA signed into law on December 22, 2023.

After that heavy lift and all of the interagency follow-on work the bill required, the 2024 legislative session of the 118th congress was not expected to see much AUKUS action. With the dust now settled after the passage of the annual defence bill and submarine-related appropriations, it is clear the momentum behind AUKUS still positively flexed its muscles.

First, the NDAA significantly strengthened the Pillar One submarine program by legalising navy ship repairs to any yard overseas operated by a close ally. One of the key components of the Optimal Pathway was to skill up and acquaint Australian naval personnel and shipyard workers with the repair and maintenance of Virginia-class submarines.

Virginia-class attack submarine Montana (SSN 794) conducts sea trials in the Atlantic Ocean. Picture: US Navy

The Australian government is committed to building out its submarine industrial base workforce and infrastructure, and having US subs now permitted to undergo repair and maintenance overseas boosts that effort and recognises Australia’s progress toward gaining proficiency.

Notably, the reform will also meet the Optimal Pathway’s calls for increased submarine presence in the Indo-Pacific by reducing gaps in US naval presence caused by long transit times back and forth to US repair yards.

The second AUKUS amendment was a mandate to the US Department of Defence to analyse the potential benefits of including Japan in the Pillar Two program.

One of the clear indicators of AUKUS’s success is the high interest of US allies – New Zealand, South Korea and Japan – in becoming partners in the security agreement.

Congress has heard loud and clear this interest from democratic allies in the Indo-Pacific, and the NDAA formally asked the Pentagon to seriously examine the benefits and challenges of Japan as a potential participant.

Lastly, congress acted forcefully through both the NDAA and the short-term spending package to support submarine production, which is essential to meeting the AUKUS schedule for the sale of Virginia-class submarines to Australia.

In the national defence bill, we successfully reversed the navy’s woefully inadequate request to cut procurement of a Virginia-class submarine and provided the navy the authority to purchase a second Virginia-class submarine in 2025.

And through the Continuing Resolution, passed just before the new year, congress delivered $5.7bn to the Virginia-class submarine program – a significant infusion of funding to keep the construction tempo rising and invest in our frontline shipyard workers.

In the same year congress was marred with record low productivity and high levels of division, the AUKUS mission still saw real momentum among politicians in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle.

That level of bipartisan, bicameral support in a challenging political environment sends a powerful signal to naysayers and sceptics that the AUKUS mission has a strong foundation of support ready to withstand the political winds the new year will bring.

Joe Courtney is a US congressman for Connecticut’s Second District.