The Navy plans to conduct its first submarine maintenance work in Australia using a U.S. submarine tender ship in summer of 2024, when dozens of Australian sailors aboard will learn to repair U.S. nuclear-powered submarines.
Under Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven on Thursday said the trilateral AUKUS partners of Australia, U.K. and the U.S. have already moved significantly toward helping Australia prepare to field a future nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) force in a short amount of time.
AUKUS will begin with increasing deployment of nuclear-powered attack submarines, basing a rotational force of U.S. and U.K. submarines in Australia, and then the U.S. selling three to five used and new Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s. Last, Australia building and fielding its own SSN-AUKUS boats in the early 2040s.
Raven said the maintenance period will use the USS Emory S. Land and “will include 30 Australian exchange sailors that will deploy with the tender for qualifications to participate in the maintenance,” Raven said at a Navy League breakfast in Washington.
In 2024 Australian sailors will be assigned to U.S. submarines and Australian maintenance workers will start training and performing maintenance at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Raven said.
A version of this story first appeared in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing affiliate publication Defense Daily.
