‘Unachievable’: dire AUKUS warning as Britain’s subs program sinks
Australia’s $4.6bn funding pledge for Britain’s nuclear submarine industry comes despite a fresh warning by a UK parliamentary committee that its naval reactor program looks ‘unachievable’.
Australia’s $4.6bn funding pledge for the UK’s nuclear submarine industry comes despite a fresh warning by the British parliament’s key accountability committee that its naval reactor program looks “unachievable”.
As Defence Minister Richard Marles pledged the taxpayer funding last week, his British counterpart Grant Shapps assured Australian taxpayers the UK government had reversed historic underinvestment in the country’s submarine enterprise.
But the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee warned in a report this month the British Ministry of Defence faced a £16.9bn ($32.7bn) deficit in its 10-year investment plan – the largest shortfall since 2012.
“Successful delivery appears to be unachievable for five (government major projects portfolio) projects, including replacement communications technology, nuclear submarine reactors, and missiles,” the committee states.
Nearly £8bn of the department’s investment program deficit was for its nuclear submarine program.
“To deliver these savings requires significant work and is a huge challenge. We are concerned that this will be difficult to deliver,” the committee warned.
It also noted British Treasury warnings “that it will be difficult for the MoD to fund fully its nuclear requirements through the reprioritisation of conventional capabilities”.
The Australian funding will go to Rolls-Royce to expand its nuclear reactor production capacity and help design the power plant for the AUKUS submarines.
Former defence official Michael Shoebridge said the UK had sought Australian money to “bail out” its nuclear program. But it had been clear, even as the AUKUS partners unveiled the plan’s “optimal pathway” last year, that the British submarine industry was in a dire state.
“If the UK Ministry of Defence was a corporate entity, it would be entering bankruptcy proceedings, and we would look like an angel investor,” the Strategic Analysis Australia director said.
Mr Shoebridge said the Albanese government needed to rethink the submarine program, dump the plan to build “SSN AUKUS” submarines with the British and lift Australia’s order of US-made Virginia-class boats.
The Pentagon recently halved the number of submarines it intends to build next year, casting doubt over the US pledge to sell three Virginia subs to Australia for delivery from the early 2030s.
But Mr Shoebridge said a corresponding delay to America’s next-generation attack submarine, SSN (X), meant the US would continue building Virginia-class boats well into the 2040s.
He said this overcame the primary reason Australia had turned to Britain in the first place – that the US was shutting-down Virginia-class construction in favour of the SSN (X).
“We can now have a single, much simpler transition to nuclear submarines with an all-Virginia fleet,” Mr Shoebridge said.
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