Submarine chiefs sketch out scale of AUKUS challenge, but say we are on target

US admiral William Houston says providing Australia with nuclear-powered subs will be ‘challenging’ but that ‘we are on the path to achieve this’.

Admiral William Houston, right, with Royal Navy second sea lord, Vice Admiral Martin Connell, left, and Australian Submarine Agency director-general, Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead. Picture: supplied

The head of the US Navy’s nuclear propulsion program says it will be “challenging” for America to meet its production targets to provide Australia with between three and five nuclear-powered Virginia class submarines, but that “we are on the path to achieve this.”

Admiral William Houston, the former US submarine forces commander, provided an assurance on Friday that the US was hiring 40,000 workers and investing more than $10bn in its submarine industrial base to ensure it was in a position to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines from 2032.

“We are fully committed to the sale and transfer of the submarines we have discussed to Australia,” he said. “Of course, it’s conditions based - that you are ready to maintain them, which you are well on track to do, and to meet the safety and stewardship requirements.”

Admiral Houston was speaking alongside Australian Submarine Agency director-general, Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, and Royal Navy second sea lord, Vice Admiral Martin Connell, at HMAS Stirling near Perth.

The submarine chiefs appeared together to mark the first time that a Virginia class submarine, the USS Hawaii, had received maintenance work outside of a US territory - a key milestone in Australia achieving an enduring nuclear-powered submarine capability.

More than 30 Australian Navy personnel, embedded since January on the USS Emory S. Land, a submarine tender, have been working alongside US counterparts to provide the maintenance work.

Vice Admiral Mead said this was an “unprecedented” development that would help ensure, from 2027, that the nation was ready to accommodate a rotational presence at HMAS Stirling of one UK and up to four US nuclear-powered submarines and - beyond that - Australia’s own future fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

The US has judged that it will need to produce 2.33 Virginia-class boats a year in order to replace the three to five vessels which are to be sold to Australia under the AUKUS agreement.

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) prepares to moor at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia. Picture: US Navy/Petty Officer 1st Class Victoria Mejicanos

However, since 2022, production has fallen to a little more than one submarine a year. The enabling AUKUS legislation which passed Congress on December 15 made clear the President would need to certify that the transfer of the Virginia class submarines would “not degrade the United States undersea capabilities.”

Admiral Houston said on Friday that achieving the 2.33 production rate would be achievable but challenging, and require a whole of government effort from the US.

“I track the 2.33 exceptionally closely,” Admiral Houston said. “This is not just Department of Navy, not just our Department of Defence, but our executive branch and our legislative branch at the highest levels of our government. We are investing over $10bn in our submarine industrial base. We are hiring up to 40,000 workers.”

“It is a national endeavour for us,” he said. “I will say that there is broad bipartisan support for our effort to build these submarines because of their importance, not only for our defence, but also the importance of the AUKUS program.”

“It will be challenging,” he said. “I believe we are on the path to achieve this, and it will not occur easily and it will not occur quickly.”

He said that America did not look at the provision of Virginia class submarines to Australia as a “subtraction - we look at it as an addition.”

“AUKUS is a strategic imperative for all three of our nations and it uplifts us all.”

Vice-Admiral Mead said that, in 2025, there would be about 100 Australian submariners training in the US, including 50 in the nuclear program with the other 50 working on other parts of the US submarine combat system.

“We will be building to numbers in the hundreds in order to get ourselves sovereign ready in the early 2030s,” he said. “We currently already have about 25 people working through the US nuclear powered submarine program.”

However, Vice Admiral Mead said there was also a need to “recruit more Navy personnel (and) more submariners” in what was an already challenging workforce environment.

Vice Admiral Martin Connell said the design work for Australia’s SSN-AUKUS submarines, expected to be delivered in the early 2040s, had “Australians now integrated into that design team.”

He also noted that the first three Australian Navy officers to have graduated from the Royal Navy’s nuclear reactor course in the UK had been “immediately assigned to British astute class attack submarines.”