The AUKUS trilateral security deal may potentially strain the nation’s submarine fleet, two US Senators have told President Joe Biden.
The Morrison administration’s AUKUS pact, signed in September 2021, will strengthen the trilateral sharing of security and military technology while securing up to eight nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.
In a letter on December 21 that was released to the US website Breaking Defence Indo-Pacific, Democratic Senator Jack Reed and Republican Senator James Inhofe expressed their fear that carrying out the pact may endanger the country’s own fleet of submarines.
The senators stated that they had grown more worried over the previous year about the condition of the US submarine industrial base and its capacity to sustain the intended AUKUS SSN end state.
In order to prevent pushing the US submarine industrial base to the breaking point, “we believe the current circumstances demand a critical evaluation of the realities.”
Senators Reed and Inhofe were the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a congressional body that regulates the nation’s armed forces, at the time the letter was sent.
Senator Reed oversees the AUKUS pact and continues to have a strong voice in Congress on defense issues despite Inhofe’s retirement since then.
“We are worried that what was first promoted as a ‘do no harm’ opportunity to bolster Australia and the UK and generate long-term competitive advantages for the US and its pacific allies, may be morphing into a zero-sum struggle for rare, highly advanced US SSNs,” they stated.
“As we strive to develop this strategic alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom over the coming decades, we ask you to adopt a ‘do no harm’ attitude to AUKUS discussions and ensure that sovereign US national security capabilities will not be weakened.”
Joe Siracusa, a political analyst at Curtin University, expressed his surprise at learning that the US lacks the resources to satisfy both Australia’s request and its demands.
He told Sky News Australia on Friday, “You would believe that the American submarine constructors have a surge capacity to execute this kind of thing.
Mr. Sircausa clarified that although Australia’s security ally struggled to satisfy its 66 submarine need owing to retiring ships, it also has its own submarine shortages and that the letter might also reflect mistrust of Australia’s politicians.
The senators from the United States disclosed a little too much information. They have some reservations about discussing top-secret nuclear propulsion with Australia, according to Mr. Siracusa.
The AUKUS alliance will collaborate in the Indo-Pacific area and develop a class of nuclear-powered submarines. Image: Australian Defense Force/Yuri Ramsey
The AUKUS alliance will collaborate in the Indo-Pacific area and develop a class of nuclear-powered submarines. Image: Australian Defense Force/Yuri Ramsey
They may not trust Australian politicians, but they do trust Australia as an ally.
“I believe it is their way of saying find them elsewhere,” the author said.
Due to the retirement of Australia’s present Collins-class conventionally powered submarines before the implementation of the new technology agreement with the UK and US, the timing for the nuclear submarines is crucial to avoid a capability gap.
The initial consultation session for the AUKUS alliance’s 18-month preliminary planning phase, which will expire in March, is currently ongoing.
