Navy officials on Wednesday told a House panel that several legislative proposals are needed to prevent delays in the tripartite AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
In a joint statement, Under Secretary of the Navy Erik Raven, Commander of Naval Submarine Forces Vice Adm. William Houston, and Program Executive Officer for Attack Submarines Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker told the House Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee during a hearing on the submarine industrial base that “AUKUS can only succeed with the same, continued bi-partisan support demonstrated since the March 2023 announcement of the Optimal Pathway.”
In March, the U.S., U.K. and Australia announced the “optimal pathway” for the AUKUS agreement that seeks to help Australia produce its own nuclear-powered submarines.
The officials said Congress needs to pass four legislative proposals as part of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization act in order to stay on schedule.
First, allowing the U.S. to sell Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) to Australia “demonstrates the US commitment, sends the right signal to Australia to make proportional contribution into the US SIB, and keeps Pillar One on track. It is critical that this legislation pass without language that could undermine Australian certainty of these U.S. transfers under the agreed upon optimal pathway.”
Under AUKUS, the U.S. plans to sell three to five new and used Virginia-class SSNs to Australia in the early 2030s before Australia starts building and delivering its own SSN-AUKUS boats in the early 2040s.
Australia has committed to contribute $3 billion to the U.S. submarine industrial base in addition to paying for the submarines themselves ahead of developing its own industrial base to build and maintain nuclear-powered submarines.
The Navy officials said passing legislation allowing the sales now will provide enough time to complete “what will be an extremely complicated Foreign Military Sales case,” which will allow “Australian personnel to take part in the planning and execution of the major maintenance availability occurring prior to the first planned SSN transfer.”
One legislative provision would modify the International Traffic in Arms Regulations laws to better support AUKUS.
The Navy officials said that this has the largest impact on non-submarine technology cooperation.”
A version of this story first appeared in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing affiliate publication Defense Daily.
