Australians to train in UK nuclear submarines in historic agreement

Australian submariners will be allowed access to technology kept secret from foreign nations under plans being discussed by Richard Marles and UK ministers.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Victorious departs HMNB Clyde.

Submariners from Australia will be allowed to train inside Britain’s nuclear-powered submarines and access sensitive technology that has been kept secret from foreign nations for decades, it can be revealed.

Although Norwegian and French personnel have been inside British boats they have been restricted from accessing areas beyond the bulkhead, where the nuclear reactor technology is placed.

Under the plans being discussed by British and Australian ministers today, naval officers would be allowed to see nuclear engineering at work for the first time. In an exclusive interview with The Times, Richard Marles, Australia’s deputy prime minister and defence minister, said his country’s submarine crews needed to “evolve” from working on diesel-electric submarines to nuclear-powered ones so they could confront future threats.

“The idea of Australian crew working with either British or American crews to get experience on British or American vessels in the shorter term is what we are seeking to do,” he said. “Having the opportunity for Australian submariners to gain experience on the submarines of either the United States or the United Kingdom is going to be absolutely fundamental.”

Richard Marles meets French air force personnel during a visit to RAAF Base Darwin.

A Royal Navy source said: “We protect UK technology very closely. This a first-time agreement where we can give Australians access to that. It’s a really big gift.” The source said that nuclear reactor technology was highly sensitive because it could be used to build nuclear bombs.

Marles, on his first visit to the UK since Australia’s new government took office in May, will join Boris Johnson and Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, in the northwest of England today to attend the commissioning ceremony for HMS Anson, the fifth of seven new Astute-class attack submarines, and to discuss co-operation between their nations.

Australia is to become the seventh nation to operate nuclear-powered submarines as part of the landmark AUKUS pact agreed by the United States, UK and Australia last year. The US, UK, France, China, India and Russia already operate such vessels.

The training is likely to take place on the UK’s £1.4 billion Astute-class nuclear-powered submarines, rather than the Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines because they have the newest reactor technology. Some of the training could be restricted to four months but other courses could last several years. The source said that Australian submariners could even potentially embed with the Royal Navy on its submarines. It is understood that no extra security vetting will be deemed necessary.

HMAS Collins sails out through the channel to meet HMAS Waller and HMAS Rankin at Gage Roads for a naval exercise.

Marles said that his government had not yet decided which nuclear- powered submarines – British or American – were best to replace Australia’s ageing conventional submarine fleet. He said he was planning to announce the choice early next year.

As part of the AUKUS pact, British submarines could undergo maintenance in Australia to enable them to patrol in the region for longer, Marles acknowledged.

In an editorial for The Times, he added that the “return of war in Europe should be a warning for us all”. He said there were lessons to be learnt from the conflict in Ukraine for the Indo-Pacific region. “Military build-up in the region is occurring at an astonishing rate, with the largest investment in new capability occurring in China,” he writes. “The use of aggressive military force to coerce and invade neighbouring nations cannot be tolerated in the modern world.”

Australia is not obtaining nuclear weapons and has chosen nuclear-powered submarines because they are much faster than conventionally powered fleets and are harder to detect.

The Times