Despite promises to ramp up production, so Australia can receive nuclear-powered submarines, the Pentagon will only start one new submarine in 2025.
Already a subscriber?The Pentagon has halved the number of AUKUS submarines it will build next year, casting doubt on the timetable to supply Australia with its firstThe Biden administration’s draft budget funds construction on just one new Virginia-class submarine for 2025, despite promises to ramp up production so second-hand boats can be freed up for Australia’s navy in the 2030s.
Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in San Diego on March 13 last year.However, the transfer of the American submarines hinges on production in the US increasing to an average of 2.33 boats a year. That will ensure the US Navy can replace its boats destined for Australia and avoid a reduction in the size of its fleet.
“At a time when the pace of all of navy shipbuilding – manned and unmanned, including carriers, submarines, destroyers and frigates – is recovering from the impact of the COVID pandemic and supply chain disruptions, the navy’s plan to cut a submarine that is already been partially paid for and built, makes little or no sense,” he said.
Elbridge Colby, a former top defence official in the Trump administration, said the US should not authorise the transfer of submarines to Australia if it diminished availability of boats for the US in a potential war with China over Taiwan.He said it would take a “Herculean effort” to increase production to meet the US need for replacement submarines as well as supply Australia’s navy.
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