Scott Morrison pours cold water on home-built subs

Scott Morrison has left the door open to Australia’s $100bn-plus nuclear submarines being built offshore.

Vice-Admiral David Johnston. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has left the door open to Australia’s $100bn-plus nuclear submarines being built offshore, saying the “paramount goal” is not to build them in Adelaide but “to ensure we get that capability as soon as we can”.

In his joint AUKUS announcement with US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last September, the Prime Minister declared “we intend to build these sub­marines in Adelaide”.

But he declined on Tuesday to guarantee the submarines – apart from their nuclear reactors – would be built in Adelaide.

“We’re working through all of those issues,” he said. “And that is certainly our intention to maximise all of that. Of course it is.

“But it’s also the paramount goal to ensure we get that capability as soon as we can, and it’s in the best form that it can be working with our partners.”

The statement is the first by the Prime Minister that contemplates the prospect of the sub­marines, or some of them, being substantially built outside Adelaide to ensure they arrive faster.

Under the AUKUS agreement, the US and Britain have pledged to help Australia build eight nuclear-powered sub­marines of an undecided design.

The news the subs would be built in Adelaide was welcomed by South Australia as a vital boost to its defence industry but condemned by strategists, who said building the subs in Adelaide would delay the boats’ delivery and dramatically increase costs.

Many commentators have called for at least the initial submarines to be built offshore to fast-track their capability, saying if all the boats were built in Australia, they might arrive too late to meet the nation’s strategic needs.

Labor defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor said Mr Morrison was “clearly walking away from his promise to build sub­marines in Australia”.

“How can Australians trust this Prime Minister, who once again promises one thing and fails to deliver?” Mr O’Connor said.

“He must be upfront with Australians about what if anything will be built in Australia.”

South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick said the comments represented “an utter betrayal of South Australia”.

“A clear commitment was made to build these submarines in Adelaide,” he said.

However, Mr Morrison’s office pointed to the government’s moves to acquire extra land at Adelaide’s Osborne shipyards for the nuclear submarine program as evidence the boats would be built there.

Mr Morrison’s comments came as one of the nation's top military chiefs warned there was an “urgency” to a new AUKUS agreement to develop hypersonic weapons.

In a joint statement this week, Mr Morrison, Mr Biden and Mr Johnson said the trilateral AUKUS partnership would ­expand its focus to include ­“advanced hypersonic and ­counter-hypersonic capabilities”.

Vice-Admiral Johnston told Senate estimates on Tuesday that while Australia’s allies were yet to field hypersonic missiles, China had “a range of hypersonic weapons”.

Speaking hours after it emerged the US conducted a successful hypersonic missile test last month, Admiral Johnston said it was unclear how long it would take for AUKUS allies to develop the capability. “It is being pursued with urgency,” he said. “Those time­frames can be quite sensitive, but significant effort is going into those capabilities.”

Hypersonic weapons travel at more than five times the speed of sound and deliver conventional or nuclear payloads.

China and Russia have both demonstrated successful hypersonic weapons, with the Kremlin claiming it used one during its invasion of Ukraine.

The US tested a hypersonic cruise missile in March, according to CNN, but kept the test quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia.