Senior Democrat Joe Courtney calls for Trump administration to open up on Elbridge Colby’s AUKUS probe

Joe Courtney, the Democrat co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, says there’s a ‘systemic issue’ with the Pentagon and information about the AUKUS submarines review is coming in ‘dribbles’.

President Donald Trump points as he arrives at Glasgow Prestwick Airport at the weekend. Congressman Joe Courtney said it was hard to know how seriously the AUKUS review would be taken by President Trump when it was finished. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

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US congressman Joe Courtney says there should be greater clarity around the AUKUS submarines review, with another leading Democrat blasting the US Department of Defence for a lack of transparency and refusing to provide basic ­information and briefings when requested.

Mr Courtney, a Democrat from Connecticut and the co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, said there was a “systemic issue” with the Pentagon and a “dearth of communication” in which information was only coming out in small “dribbles”.

He told The Australian the leadership of the US navy had briefed the Pentagon as part of the ongoing AUKUS review but again stressed he did not know “what the questions were that were asked or the answers that were given.”

The Albanese government has now made the second instalment of $800m dollars to the US under the AUKUS framework, bringing the total to $1.6bn, in the expectation that America will provide Australia with three Virginia-class submarines from the early 2030s.

Addressing the available information on the AUKUS review, Mr Courtney suggested confusing signals had been floated by the Pentagon. He said it was “really problematic” for work to be continuing on AUKUS by invested parties without more guidance on what was being examined.

Mr Courtney is the Democrats’ ranking member of the seapower and projection forces subcommittee of the House of Representatives armed services committee.

He said it was hard to know how seriously the review would be taken by President Donald Trump when it was finished, declaring that “the buck stops at the White House” and not with the Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Elbridge Colby

Representative Joe Courtney, Democrat-Connecticut., arrives for a House Democrats' caucus meeting in the Capitol last week. Picture: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“We were told initially it was a 30-day review which obviously had people really sceptical that something that has been worked on for four years and had so much effort with the optimal pathway could get a fair analysis in 30 days,” he said. “I does seem like the Department (of Defence) pumped the brakes in terms of the framework.”

“It’s not clear why they did that or what is the new timeframe? I mean, in the meantime there’s still work going on … operating under the assumption that AUKUS is here to stay,” he said.

“So to have this happening with no sort of guidance about what’s the scope of this (review) in terms of people who are operating in good faith and relying on AUKUS being enduring is really problematic.”

“For me, it’s very frustrating and, for others, it’s just completely kind of a head scratcher trying to figure out what is the approach?”

It is not known what the time frame for the AUKUS review is; whether its findings will be released publicly either in full or in part; what parts of the AUKUS agreement are being examined; whether issues outside of AUKUS itself – such as Australia’s positioning on Taiwan – will factor into the review’s findings; whether it will make direct recommendations to the Trump administration or what status the review will have when completed.

Pentagon policychief Elbridge Colby. Picture: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA

Mr Colby, who has been tasked by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth with leading the AUKUS review, has taken issue with Australia’s levels of defence spending and its position on support for Taiwan in a potential conflict between the US and China.

Also taking aim at the Pentagon, the Democrats’ ranking member of the House armed services committee Adam Smith warned last week that the “DoD and Congress is going to have to work together” and that “this administration, this DoD has shut-out Congress more than any other DoD or administration I’ve ever dealt with.”

“It’s stunning,” he said. “I have not personally had a one-on-one conversation with the Secretary of Defence. I’ve sought out meetings with the Under Secretary for Policy. I’ve basically been told to piss off … Which is unbelievable to me.”

“It is not just us,” he said. “I understand to a certain degree this administration wants Democrats to go away. That sort of partisanship isn’t that unusual. But even the majority struggles to get basic information.”

“We cannot have these consistent conversations. And that’s going to be a problem.”

Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Australian that the Pentagon is “in a state of, to put it kindly, transition. And to put it less kind, pseudo chaos”.

“It’s making it hard for anyone, including Trump’s own political appointees at lower levels below the Defence Secretary, to get their work done.”

Mr Kurlantzick said the lack of transparency over the AUKUS review was a “common phenomenon with the Trump administration in which there is not a lot of autonomy for actors other than the President”.