Democratic congressman warns funding shortfall could hobble AUKUS
Democratic congressman Joe Courtney has warned the Biden administration’s decision to slash funding for building nuclear powered Virginia Class submarines could undermine AUKUS.
Democratic Party congressman Joe Courtney, a strong advocate of the AUKUS security pact, has warned the Biden administration’s cut in spending on nuclear powered submarines could scupper Australia’s acquisition of the coveted vessels.
Mr Courtney, who is the most senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Sea power Subcommittee, told Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was testifying in congress, that the president’s latest budget would “make it harder” for a future US president to sell submarines to Australia as promised under AUKUS.
“Buying only one boat is a terrible signal for capital investment, and it tells adversaries that the US is not serious about rearming,” Mr Courtney told congress on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), referring to the unexpected December cut in the Biden administration’s budget for Virginia Class submarines.
In March the Biden administration announced it would order only one Virginia class submarine in its 2025 budget request, down from two originally scheduled, well below the 2.33 a year build rate required in coming years to meet both the US and Australian navies’ requirements.
“The President of the United States is to certify the sale of three Virginia class submarines starting in 2032, 2035, and 2038. That president has to certify, when that time comes, that those sales are not going to degrade our own fleet,” Mr Courtney explained.
“I want to make sure that that decision is as easy as possible to make sure that the goal of AUKUS is going to be achieved. Cutting a sub from the inventory, which is what this budget proposal unfortunately does, in my opinion, makes that decision harder”.
Supply bottlenecks at the two major US submarine shipyards, run by General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries, saw funding allocated to Virginia class submarines drop by 24 per cent to US$8.2 billion in the Biden administration’s 2025 budget request.
US submarine yards have been plagued by production bottlenecks and worker shortages, as the US government seeks to bolster output significantly to ramp up submarine production across both nations as China takes an increasingly belligerent stances in the Pacific.
It’s uncertain how a future Trump presidency would handle the AUKUS pact, which emerged in late 2021 in a deal between Joe Biden, Scott Morrison and then UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
The alliance envisages Australia acquiring a fleet of US-built nuclear powered submarines ahead of plans to build a next generation fleet of nuclear powered submarines, dubbed SSN-AUKUS, in South Australia from the 2040s.
Mr Courtney, who represents a shipbuilding district in Connecticut, had already called out the surprise cut at the time.
“Given the new commitment the Department of Defence and Congress made last year to sell three submarines to our ally Australia, which I enthusiastically support, the ramifications of the Navy’s proposal will have a profound impact on both countries’ navies,” he said in a statement in March.
The government has promised to pay US$3bn to the US to help it bolster its submarine production capacity, as part of the estimated $368bn cost of the total AUKUS submarine program.
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