Australia says it will meet ‘challenges’ of AUKUS nuclear submarine timeline
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(From left) Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth in Washington on Dec 8.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY – Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia was “very self-critical” as it looked to address challenges, including skilling its workforce, for the AUKUS nuclear submarine programme
A Pentagon review of AUKUS found areas to put the deal on the “strongest possible footing”, a US official said last week, although the findings have not been made public.
Announced in 2021, AUKUS is Australia’s largest-ever defence project
Defence ministers from Australia, Britain and the US will meet in Washington on Dec 10 local time to discuss “how we can take it forward with urgency”, Mr Marles said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview on Dec 10.
Whether or not Australia is moving fast enough to build its nuclear submarine base, and whether the US can build enough Virginia submarines to meet its own needs, were major themes in the review undertaken by the US Under Secretary of Defence Elbridge Colby, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The Pentagon review made recommendations on how “we can do AUKUS better”, Mr Marles said.
He was confident that Australia would meet a deadline to host four US Virginia submarines at its Indian Ocean naval base in Perth at the end of 2027, although the “enormous uplift” required was a challenge, he noted.
“There are going to be challenges for us around skilling our workforce to be able to do everything that we’re seeking to do, both in terms of building but also maintaining the submarines,” he said.
“We need to be looking at that in a granular way... we continue to do that and be very self-critical along the way,” he added.
Other challenges for AUKUS include building supply chains and lifting production rates for submarines in the US, he said. REUTERS
