Powerful Senate committee signs off on transfer of nuclear submarines to Australia

Australia now has the green light to acquire three Virginia class submarines, including one brand new, by the early 2030s.

The Virginia-class attack submarine Minnesota (SSN 783) is under construction Nov. 1, 2012, at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding. (Newport News Shipbuilding via Navy)

The Albanese government has hailed the approval of key technology transfer under the AUKUS security pact by a US Senate committee as an “important early step”.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Friday (Saturday AEST) signed off on the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to the navy and granted Australia a rare 20-year exemption from tough US defence technology export controls.

Senior Republican and Democrat senators, and Australia’s ambassador, Kevin Rudd, hailed the amendment, which would give the green light to Australia acquiring three Virginia-class submarines by the early 2030s.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Richard Marles on Sunday said overcoming barriers to transfer tech between the US and Australian militaries was a “priority” for the two nations.

“The government welcomes the efforts of the Biden administration working with the US congress on legislative reform to streamline defence co-operation between AUKUS partners,” he said.

“This is an important early step in the legislative process.”

The amendment, expected to gain the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives in coming weeks, would provide Australia a national exemption from US export controls that otherwise would have hobbled AUKUS, the trilateral agreement that emerged in September 2021 and envisions sharing advanced military technology among the US, Britain and Australia.

“Some may have said why share all this stuff with those crazy Australians? The bottom line is we’ve been sharing each other’s national secrets for three-quarters of a century [via Five Eyes] … so the time has come to take that and then translate it in to how we share defence, science, industry and technology as well,” Mr Rudd said.

Kevin Rudd met US President Joe Biden last month as he started his new role as Australia's Ambassador to the US. Picture: Supplied

He was speaking alongside Democrat senator Tim Kaine, chair of the seapower subcommittee, in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on Friday (Saturday AEST), not far from where US shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls manufactures a significant proportion of the Virginia-class attack submarine for the US navy.

“I know the business of making sausages can sometimes be untidy, messy, prolonged, but ultimately there’s a sausage at the end, and so it is with the passage of legislation,” Mr Rudd added, foreshadowing the possibility of “nips and tucks” as the bill passed through congress.

The amendment would also create a Submarine Security Account at the US Treasury to accept Australia’s promised contributions under AUKUS, expected to be around $3bn in the first few years, for use by the US to develop its submarine capacity.

Anthony Albanese, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden unveiled the political expectations for the AUKUS pact in San Diego in March, including providing Australia with up to five Virginia-class submarines by the 2030s, and construction of a new class of nuclear-powered submarine, dubbed SSN AUKUS, by the 2040s.

Republican senator Jim Risch said in a statement the amendment would “change our approach to defence trade with our closest allies, Australia and the United Kingdom – both of whom have an outstanding record in protecting US technology”.

The cost of the submarine program, up to an estimated $368bn through to the 2040s, has attracted criticism from elements in the Labor Party, amid separate concerns that the US might ultimately fail to provide the Virginia-class submarines because of supply ­bottlenecks that have dragged the domestic production rate down to 1.2 year rather than the two congress had demanded.

US Under-Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven, speaking alongside Mr Rudd and Senator Kaine, said the US was “absolutely” capable of ramping up production.