Australian defense officials deemed the nuclear-powered submarine technology of the United States and the United Kingdom to be higher than that of the French-class Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarines, which are entering service with the French Navy.
Australia has a fleet of six Collins-class conventionally-powered diesel-electric attack submarines, but has pursued a potentially $90 billion program to replace that fleet with 12 new conventionally-powered submarines designed by the French Naval Group. The latter, 65 percent owned by the French government and 35 percent by Thales, also builds the Barracuda-class boats.
In April, 2016, Australia announced France had beaten Japan and England for building Australia’s new submarines, but Australia did not ink an agreement with Naval Group to build the boats until February, 2019.
Australia’s newly announced pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines is likely to signal the cancellation of that conventional replacement program.
“At the moment, Australia has a regional superiority with our Collins-class submarines,” Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said Sept. 16 during a question and answer session with reporters during an appearance at the U.S. State Department with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
The six Collins-class submarines “go into a lifetime extension starting in 2026, and that will take them out to the 2040s, which means that we need an enduring capability with regional superiority beyond that,” Dutton said. “The clear advice to us from the [Australian] chief of navy, the chief of defense forces has been that a conventional, diesel submarine was not going to provide us with the capability into the 2030s, the second half of the 2030s, 2040s and beyond, and that we needed a nuclear-powered submarine. And so we looked at what options were available to us.”
“The French have a version, which was not superior to that operated by the United States and the United Kingdom,” Dutton said. “In the end, the decision that we have made is based on what is in the best interests of our national security and the prevailing security and peace within the Indo-Pacific, and therefore it became a natural partnership with the U.K. and the U.S.”
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat [GD] and Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] build the Virginia-class (SSN-774) attack submarines for the U.S., while BAE Systems builds the U.K.’s Astute-class submarines. Both the Virginia and Astute-class are larger than the Barracuda-class and have submerged displacements of greater than 7,300 tons, while the Barracuda-class is to have a submerged displacement of 5,300 tons.
Defense analyst Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners LLC wrote in a Sept. 16 note to investors that Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines will likely include a Lockheed Martin [LMT] combat system. Lockheed Martin was to provide its BYG-1 Combat System for Australia’s conventional submarines that were to replace the Collins-class boats.
“These [conventional] submarines were to be built in Adelaide, Australia with deliveries beginning in the early 2030s,” Callan wrote. “The program has seen cost growth and there had been speculation in 2020 and earlier this year that Australia would seek alternatives.”
A senior Biden administration official said on Sept. 15 that Australia’s development of a nuclear-powered submarine will be challenging, as “Australia does not have a nuclear domestic infrastructure.”
“This will be a sustained effort over years,” the official said.
Senior administration officials pointed to the rarity of such a partnership, noting the only other instance of the U.S. working with another country on nuclear-powered propulsion is with the U.K., beginning back in 1958.
With AUKUS focused on bolstering future deterrence efforts in the Indo-Pacific region, administration officials cited nuclear-powered submarines’ ability to provide improved stealth, speed maneuverability, survivability and range over diesel submarines.
China denounced AUKUS as a provocation.
“This is not the first time that we’ve seen different outbursts from China in terms of Australia’s position,” Dutton said on Sept. 16. “We are a proud democracy in our region. We stand with our neighbors in the Indo-Pacific to ensure enduring peace, and this collaboration makes it a safer region. That’s the reality. No amount of propaganda can dismiss the facts.”