Six US senators have demanded extra information on submarines before backing AUKUS

The Pentagon’s promise to release a report on the US submarine production next year isn’t good enough, say a bipartisan group of six US Senators.

Images released as part of the AUKUS press release. United States Navy Virginia Class submarine USS Mississippi arrives at Fleet Base West, Rockingham, Western Australia for a routine port visit.

A bipartisan group of US senators has demanded the Pentagon release details on how much extra money it will need to provide Australia with nuclear powered submarines in the 2030s at the same time as satisfying the US Navy’s own expanding fleet requirements.

In a further escalation of a months-long standoff between congress and the White House over how to proceed with AUKUS, the three-way security pact among the US, Australia and the UK, three Republican and three Democrat senators have insisted the Pentagon release an already- completed study on the US submarine base by the end of this month.

“Congress must have a comprehensive understanding of the current status of the submarine industrial base as well as the future resource investments necessary to meet our nation’s requirements,” the senators wrote in a letter dated 12th October that was release by Senator John Wicker on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

“The volume of submarine tonnage the industrial base must produce to meet the Navy’s own requirements and fully implement the AUKUS agreement will require historic and sustained investments in the submarine workforce and supplier network,” it added.

As part of the AUKUS agreement, announced in September 2021, the navy is meant to acquire between three and five Virginia-class US submarines by the early 2030s, and the government will chip in US$3 billion to the US Treasury to help expand US submarine base.

Senators have expressed concern this extra funding won’t be enough to boost submarine output to satisfy both promises to Australia and the US navy, which had planned on building at least two new Virginia class submarines a year to boost its own fleet at a time of growing threat from China in the Indo-Pacific.

“It is critical that the administration articulate a detailed plan for instituting necessary enhancements to the submarine industrial base,” the senators wrote, arguing the Pentagon’s plan to release the information early next year wasn’t acceptable.

In July 23 Republicans in congress asked the White House to “immediately” provide a plan to lift production of Virginia class submarines.

“To make up for the sale of at least three attack submarines to Australia, the US would have to produce somewhere between 2.3 to 2.5 submarines per year to avoid further shrinking our fleet’s operational capacity,” the letter to the White House read, noting the current production rate of 1.2 was already below a forecast two per year.

In the same month the senate held up legislative changes that would facilitate the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines and technology to Australia, making its support contingent on a White House request for additional funding of the US submarine base.

Senators’ latest concern about US submarine capacity emerged a week after Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd said congress wasn’t moving fast enough to amend US defence technology export rules that would hobble the AUKUS agreement as they currently stand.