By Angus Thompson, Rachael Dexter and Matthew Knott
Defence Minister Richard Marles has said there is “no doubt” the AUKUS submarine deal will place pressure on US defence industries and the new military alliance will require Australia’s entire industrial base.
Speaking a day after it was revealed two US senators warned President Joe Biden the security pact to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia would stretch their country’s own submarine industry to “breaking point”, Marles said Australia must develop its own capabilities.
Defence Minister Richard Marles says there is no doubt the AUKUS submarine pact will put pressure on the US defence industries.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“There are lots of challenges and there’s no doubt that the pressure this places on the industrial base of the United States – also, the United Kingdom – is really significant. We’re very aware of it,” Marles said in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, on Saturday morning.
“That’s why it’s so important that Australia develops its own industrial capability to build nuclear-powered submarines, which we will do in Adelaide.”
Accompanying him, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese listed national security, and within that, the alliance with the UK and US, as among his government’s biggest challenges and “opportunities” for 2023, foreshadowing the announcement about which type of submarine it will acquire by March.
He also spoke of the strategic review being undertaken by former defence minister Stephen Smith and retired defence force chief Sir Angus Houston, “to make sure that every dollar that we put into defending our country and into our national security is done in the best way possible”.
An American nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarine.Credit:
Albanese said Australia’s local defence capabilities would need to be fortified by upskilling local workers, including through universities “in areas such as nuclear technology”, as well as local tradespeople.
Marles added that Australia would need to strengthen the local defence economy “in order to contribute to the net industrial base of the three countries of the United States, the United Kingdom, and ourselves”.
“And we are doing this a pace right now,” he said, adding the Commonwealth was working with the South Australian government regarding the assembly of the submarines at the Osborne naval shipyard in Port Adelaide
“This is such a large endeavour that it will require the industrial base of the whole nation.”
Defence Minister Richard Marles
“This is not just going to be a huge opportunity for South Australia. This is such a large endeavour that it will require the industrial base of the whole nation. This is going to provide opportunities and WA it’s going to provide opportunities right here in Victoria.”
Professor John Blaxland, of the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said the American industrial base “isn’t as elastic as it used to be”.
“For us to be pressuring them to accommodate us in their production, at least for the first couple of iterations, is butting up against an unease in certain circles in Washington,” Blaxland said.
“We want submarines produced in Australia but we want them quickly, and we want the United States and United Kingdom to help us get there. Realistically, that doesn’t add up.”
Australia Industry Defence Network chief executive Brent Clark said a large section of the local industry was “match fit”.
“As long as there’s a genuine transfer of intellectual property and technology to them, they’d be more than capable of stepping up,” he said, adding other parts of the industry required further investment.
“It’s quite clear the government now has a drive and that must translate to Defence giving Australian companies the opportunity to do work.”
In a letter to Biden sent on December 21, Democratic Senator Jack Reed and Republican Senator James Inhofe explicitly warned against any plan to sell or transfer Virginia-class submarines to Australia before the US Navy meets its current requirements.
“Over the past year, we have grown more concerned about the state of the US submarine industrial base as well as its ability to support the desired AUKUS SSN [nuclear submarine] end state,” Reed and Inhofe said in their letter to the White House, first reported by US website Breaking Defence.
“We believe current conditions require a sober assessment of the facts to avoid stressing the US submarine industrial base to the breaking point.”
Reed is the chair of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the US military and Department of Defence. Inhofe, whose Senate career ended this week, was the top Republican on the committee when the letter was sent.
Marles said he met with both senators last year. “They are both very strong supporters of Australia. And really, I have no doubt at the end of the day that we will be able to deliver this with support across the political systems of both the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Blaxland said Australia was more likely to see a rotation of American and British submarines, partly manned by Australian crews. The government could also help “muscle up” foreign production lines with personnel and resources, he said.
Opposition Leader and former defence minister Peter Dutton has previously said securing a small number of Virginia-class submarines from the US would be the best way to bridge a looming capability gap between the retirement of the current Collins Class fleet and the arrival of locally manufactured nuclear-powered submarines in the early 2040s.
The idea has been widely dismissed on the grounds American shipbuilding yards are struggling to meet the US Navy’s needs and do not have the capacity to build submarines for Australia.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.