The news was made on Monday during an event at a naval base in San Diego, California when President Joe Biden hosted the prime ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom, Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak.
Washington: As part of an ambitious strategy to bolster Western forces across the Asia-Pacific in response to a rising China, Australia has announced plans to purchase up to five nuclear-powered submarines from the US and then create a new model using American and British technology.
The news was made on Monday during an event at a naval base in San Diego, California when President Joe Biden hosted the prime ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom, Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak.
The US has “defended stability in the Indo-Pacific for decades,” according to Biden, adding that the submarine alliance will increase “the promise of peace for decades to come.” A US Virginia-class nuclear submarine was docked behind the stage where the trio was speaking.
Australia, which joined the AUKUS alliance with Washington and London 18 months ago, won’t be receiving nuclear weapons, as Biden emphasized.
But by procuring nuclear-powered stealth submarines, Australia joins an exclusive club and leads US-led efforts to counter China’s military expansion.
According to Albanese, the agreement is the largest single investment Australia has ever made in its defense capabilities.
The submarines are anticipated to be outfitted with cruise missiles that can effectively discourage potential attackers by striking targets at a great distance.
Albanese expected that the wider economic effects at home would be comparable to the country’s post-World War II introduction of the automobile sector.
The multi-decade project is expected to cost over $40 billion in the first 10 years and generate 20,000 jobs, according to the Australian government’s projections.
Albanese emphasized that Australia was now just the second nation, after Britain, to be given access to US naval nuclear secrets. “We are demarcated, above all, by a globe… where peace, stability, and security enable greater prosperity,” he remarked.
The sale of three nuclear-powered, conventionally armed Virginia class ships will take place “throughout the 2030s,” with the “probability of going up to five if that is needed,” according to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser.
Thereafter, Australia and Britain will start construction on a new design known as the SSN-AUKUS, which will also be nuclear-powered and carry conventional missiles. According to Sullivan, there would be “major acquisitions in all three industrial bases” and this will be a British design using US technology.
Military spending is increasing–
While Australia has judged out using nuclear weapons, the submarine proposal represents an important new development in the conflict with China, which has developed a highly advanced naval fleet and transformed man-made islands in the Pacific into offshore bases.
Britain is taking steps to strengthen its military capabilities in response to the Chinese challenge and Russia’s incursion of pro-Western Ukraine, Sunak’s office announced on Monday.
During the next two years, more than $6 billion in additional financing will “replenish and fortify key munitions stores, modernize the UK’s nuclear business, and support the next phase of the AUKUS submarine program,” according to Downing Street.
Australia had originally planned to buy a $66 billion package of French vessels that were also conventionally propelled to replace its outdated fleet of diesel-powered submarines.
The three nations and its close partner France got into a brief but extremely heated argument after Canberra abruptly announced it was exiting that deal and joining the AUKUS project.
The Virginia-class submarines are nearly twice as long and have 132 crew members, not 48, as opposed to the Collins-class submarines that Australia is set to retire.
Yet, a lengthy wait will be necessary for the longer-term update.
According to a senior US official, Australia would only receive the “state-of-the-art” SSN-AUKUS ships in the early 2040s, while the British navy would receive them in the late 2030s.
Xi Jinping, the leader of the communist nation, charged last week that the United States was driving a campaign by the West to “all-round contain, encircle, and subdue China.”
Washington, meanwhile, claims Beijing is frightening nations all over the Asia-Pacific by threatening to invade the autonomous democracy of Taiwan and by underlining the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea.
The senior US official claimed that during the past five to ten years, China has taken a number of aggressive actions under the leadership of Xi Jinping. This is an effort to protect and secure the Indo-Pacific operating system.
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