Defence Minister Richard Marles is open to co crewing and co-flagging America’s Los Angeles class of submarines, but he is not enthusiastic about investing in new shipyards in America.
| An Australian co-investment in a new or expanded shipyard in the US would speed up initial production of a fleet of new submarines needed within the next decade to prepare for the threat of China, according to US defence experts.
However, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, who has just toured nuclear submarine reactors and met with Pentagon and White House officials in Washington DC, said his preference was for investments in Australian infrastructure only. The newest Virginia Class submarine, the Hyman G. Rickover, during a christening ceremony, in July last year. It is due to enter service this year.Mr Marles said the focus under the AUKUS deal was to improve domestic Australian production capability. “We need to make sure that we are contributing to the net industrial base of the three countries that is going to be needed,” Mr Marles said. “We see building our own industrial capability as the contribution that we need to make, to grow the net capacity of the three countries.”In the latest US defence budget known as the National Defence Authorisation Act, a request was made by Congressman Joe Courtney for the expansion of shipyards with the goal of stepping up Virginia class submarine production by up to two or three boats a year. America is already at full capacity submarine production, leaving Australia in a difficult position to fulfil its requirement for 10 submarines within the next decade. The US Navy builds two nuclear submarines a year at two shipyards, in Virginia and Connecticut. Its present 30-year shipbuilding plan states: “Nuclear powered ship production .... will be at capacity for the next 15 years.”According to a Congressional Research Service paper, the navy testified in June last year that increasing the capacity of the submarine construction industrial base to an extra submarine a year would require “$US1.5 billion to $2 billion of further investment by ourselves plus industry, and an increase in the workforce”. Mr Marles would not be drawn on whether US officials had asked him to consider such a co-investment that could help speed up delivery. However, it is understood the US government has not yet asked Australia for such a contribution and that it might, in fact, prefer Australia to invest in capacity in Australia.“In acknowledging that the industrial capacity in the United States and in Britain is fully focused on delivering submarines for their own navies, what’s really clear to us,” Mr Marles said, “is that to make this work, we need to be building the capability in Australia. “We wanted to talk about ways in which we can break down barriers to build a more seamless defence industrial base. “There really has been a shared vision that actually what we need to do is build a project team. And what that means in terms of defence industry is that we do get to the place of that seamless industrial base.” The Biden administration’s Co-ordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, declined to comment on whether such an investment in shipyard expansion was something the US would like to see to help speed up the delivery of submarines. Some Washington-based defence experts, including the Australia chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Charles Edel, said such a proposal was worth considering. “Increasing capacity to make more subs more quickly is clearly in the interest of the US and Australia, so this investment makes sense to me,” Mr Edel said. “But there’s still a lot of questions to be asked.”Such an investment by Australia would only be worthwhile if there was the available skilled workforce to put such assets to work, he said, and only if such an investment actually improved the time frame for which Australia could obtain new submarines.Senior fellow for defence programs at the Heritage Foundation Dakota Wood also said there was some precedent to such a co-investment idea and that it should be considered. “If the Australian government kicked in money to expand shipyards or build a third shipyard for submarines in the US that would make sense,” Mr Wood said. “However I don’t know what the US would think about this. There might be some reluctance from the nuclear side to share all the intelligence, even with trusted allies.” Mr Marles said on Thursday that following his three days in the US capital he was “heartened” by the sense of “shared mission” between Australia and America.“The sentiment of the experience of the last few days has really been a sense of shared mission, working together completely closely, doing whatever we need to do to make that as operational as possible.”more assertive efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to expand its presence in the PacificAsked whether he would consider co-crewing and co-flagging America’s Los Angeles class of submarines – a nuclear-powered fast attack boat – Mr Marles said he was open to all options.is the United States correspondent, based in Washington. He was previously the Economics correspondent and Property editor.
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