Defence Minister defends AUKUS after US subs decision

The US revealed on Tuesday it would halve the planned procurement of Virginia-class attack boats next year.

Under the agreement, the US will sell Australia up to five Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s, but the sales will be subject to approval and there are doubts that only one build a year until at least 2028 will be enough to supply the US Navy and Australia.

Thursday marks one year since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood alongside his British counterpart Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden, to announce the “optimal pathway” for Australia’s acquisition of the nuclear-powered submarines under the $368 billion security pact.

The US submarine industrial base is already under pressure, with lawmakers already sounding the alarm about the strain.

Republican lawmakers previously moved to block legislation that would allow the US to send nuclear-powered submarines to Australia as leverage to boost military spending.

There are also concerns the agreement could be torpedoed if Donald Trump becomes president, given Biden signed the deal.

But Marles dismissed the US was walking back from its pledge to AUKUS.

“There is absolutely a rock solid commitment to Australia,” he said on Wednesday.

“The fact that the American industrial base is stretched in 2024, as it was in 2023 when we made this announcement, is not news.

“It formed part of the landscape against which this arrangement was agreed a year ago.”

In a post on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy marked the anniversary.

“(AUKUS is) going to bring thousands of new and exciting jobs, the most advanced technology, and the most exciting opportunities to young Australians, Americans and British, all working together to keep this region and our countries safe,” she said in a video.

The ambassador recently visited Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide, where under the AUKUS deal the new SSN-AUKUS submarines are meant to be built from the early 2040s.

– AAP