Richard Marles at Rolls Royce to witness first stage in nuclear reactor build key to AUKUS subs

Defence Minister Richard Marles visits UK Rolls Royce factory to witness production line, confirms AUKUS subs to be built in SA.

Richard Marles (right) with British counterpart Defence Secretary Grant Shapps at the Derby site of the Rolls Royce factory in Derby. Picture: Nigel Howard

Defence Minister Richard Marles witnessed the first manufacturing of components for the nuclear reactor which will power Australia’s AUKUS submarines at the Rolls Royce factory in England.

Mr Marles, along with his British counterpart, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, on Friday saw the first “articles” being fabricated on the Derby site which will be used in the nuclear reactor of the $368bn AUKUS submarine contracts. He also confirmed the AUKUS submarines would be built in South Australia.

The submarines’ nuclear reactors are being built as self-contained modules in England by Rolls Royce, which has supplied and maintained the British government’s nuclear fleet for more than half a century.

Under tight security conditions, Mr Marles also met 13 Australians who are taking part in a nine-week familiarisation experience with Rolls Royce, the submarine builders BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness and designers Babcock.

The three companies recently signed a $7.5 billion British contract to design, prototype and purchase main long lead components for the submarines under the AUKUS deal, which includes commissioning the first nuclear-powered Australian submarines in the early 2040s.

But while Rolls Royce is doubling its plant and hiring 200 apprentices a year to help fill a skills gap, Australians are excluded from being part of the British nuclear build because of British national security issues. The 13 Australians who were at Derby were also not allowed to talk to the press.

Mr Marles however, hailed the AUKUS agreement as taking the British-Australian relationship “to the next level.”

He added: “We are building submarines together and that goes to the very core of our national secrets and our national interests”.

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles pictured with UK defence personnel and Australian industry specialists at the Rolls Royce nuclear reactor manufacturing site in Derby. Picture: Nigel Howard

He said the 13 Australians were learning critical skills in the manufacture of submarines and would take their experience back to South Australia – confirming that the Australian government was “committed to the proposition of continuous naval shipbuilding in Australia and that means the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia’’.

Mr Marles said the government would detail commercial arrangements applying to the build of the submarines in Australia at the end of March next year.

He said the physical manifestation of AUKUS, seeing the articles being built, was already apparent here in Derby.

“AUKUS is happening and it is happening on time and it is happening with momentum,’ Mr Marles said.

Both defence ministers were also asked about the Israeli-Hamas war, with Mr Marles, whose constituent office was the scene of pro-Palestinian protests, commenting that “every life matters” and that he has been working this week with both the US and the UK on getting aid into Gaza.

He said: “While there’s clearly a deep history, in the Middle East, nothing, nothing justifies the attack that Hamas undertook. On the seventh of October, there was an attack, which was, as Grant (Shapps) said, aimed at innocents. It was not aimed at combatants. These were

people who were going about their ordinary lives, literally answering the knock on the front of the door, going to a music festival – that those were the people who were targeted by Hamas in that moment. And because they were innocent, it means that what we saw on that day was murder.”

Mr Marles said Israel had the right to defend itself, noting the appalling circumstance of a significant number of its citizens now being held hostage in Gaza.

“Now, in exercising that right, it is obviously important that Israel acts consistently with the rules of war, and that the protection of civilian life is front and centre in terms of the way in which Israel is engaging in its activities. And we’ve been making that clear in our conversations with Israel.”

Australia has committed $25 million to assist the humanitarian effort in Gaza, but Mr Marles said: “What we’re seeing play out here is just an unfolding tragedy, which has impacted innocent Israelis and innocent Palestinians. And we need to be doing everything we can as an international community to be focusing on that humanitarian situation.”