Allies target early AUKUS milestones to keep 20-year plan on track – By Megan Eckstein (Defense News) / Sept 7, 2023
This is the second story of a three-part series. Click here to read the first. The third will be available Sept. 8.
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the origins of a propulsion system, which will include American and British technology.
WASHINGTON — It will take two decades for Australia to operate the nuclear-powered submarines designed and built under a new arrangement with the United States and the United Kingdom, unveiled six months ago.
Even so, a flurry of activity meant to get the undertaking off the ground has already begun, and experts say it’s critical to the program’s long-term timeline that the three countries meet these initial goals.
Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. — or AUKUS — have begun overhauling a submarine-industrial base in Western Australia; designing Australia’s future attack submarine SSN-AUKUS, that will incorporate American and Australian technology into a British attack sub design; and eyeing investments in all three countries’ submarine-industrial bases meant to make them more resilient and tightly interwoven.
