AUKUS: US, UK & Australian Attack Submarines vs. China in Pacific

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

US Navy SSN Virginia-class attack submarines have already been to Australia in support of the fast-evolving US-UK-Australia AUKUS submarine collaborative arrangement which embeds Australian experts into the US industrial base, sells Australia nuclear-powered conventionally-armed submarines and increases both trilateral industrial base funding, submarine force posture and a massive uptick in collaborative patrols and submarine forward presence.

This AUKUS arrangement, in place now for several years, was recently fortified by a joint Pentagon-UK visit to Australia in preparation for future US Virginia-class patrol and new discussion of Austraian investment in the US industrial base.

“Obviously the AUKUS agreement and the substantial investments we’re seeing by the Australians down in Perth at HMAS Stirling to be able to ensure we have sufficient submarine infrastructure so we can begin rotating — rotating our submarines. They’re starting in 2027. We just had the first visit of a Virginia class submarine to Australia this summer, I think it was in August, and that was pretty notable. It was August 4th, in fact, the USS North Carolina went,” Dr. Mara Karlin, currently performing duties as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy recently told reporters, according to a DoD transcript upon returning from Australia with UK weapons developers.

Pillar 1 of AUKUS, as Karlin described, involves selling Australia submarines in preparation for Pillar II which expands the arrangement to include “advanced technology cooperation.”

“Congress is considering a handful of important legislative proposals that are critical to making AUKUS a reality, and one of those does include allowing the department to be able to accept contributions by the Australians into our submarine industrial base. I think that is historic. I’m not familiar with other examples of countries being — putting money into our industrial base,” Karlin said.

There are several critical, arguably urgent, reasons why AUKUS is considered so critical by the Pentagon, US Navy and White House. An interesting White House essay on AUKUS from earlier this year, called “Joint Leaders Statement on AUKUS,” spells out key plans and goals for the program.