Australia unveils initial $4.5b for new nuclear submarines facility near Adelaide

The Australian Collins-class submarines will be replaced by nuclear-powered subs with technology provided by the US under Aukus. Photo / Australian Defence Force

Australia unveiled A$3.9 billion ($4.5b) in spending today as a “down payment” on a new facility to build nuclear submarines under the tripartite Aukus security pact with Britain and the United States.

The Aukus pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge submarines from the US and would provide for co-operation in developing an array of warfare technologies.

The submarines, the sale of which will begin in 2032, lie at the heart of Australia’s strategy of improving its long-range strike capabilities in the Pacific, particularly against China.

The deal could cost Canberra up to US$235b ($390b) over the next 30 years and also includes the technology to build its own vessels in the future.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the facility in Osborne, near Adelaide, would be at the heart of that.

In the long term, an estimated A$30b is expected to be spent on the facility.

“The transformation underway at Osborne shows Australia is on track to deliver the sovereign capability to build our nuclear-powered submarines for decades to come,” he said.

The investment in the Submarine Construction Yard “is critical to delivering Australia’s conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

“We are accelerating Aukus opportunities to secure Australia’s future defence capability and create lasting prosperity and jobs for the state,” he added.

In September, Canberra also revealed a US$8b investment to be spent over a decade to transform a shipbuilding and maintenance precinct in Perth, Western Australia, into facilities for a future fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Australia had a major bust-up with France in 2021 when it cancelled a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from Paris and went with the Aukus programme instead.

The pact was thrown into doubt last June when Washington said it was launching a review into whether it aligned with US President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

In December, the Pentagon said it had cleared that hurdle and that Trump had ordered it “full steam ahead”.

-Agence France-Presse