The United Kingdom awarded contracts worth $4.9 billion total to three British companies to design and manufacture the future SSN-AUKUS nuclear-powered attack submarines.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense signed the Detailed Design and Long Leads (D2L2) phase of work on Oct. 1 with BAE Systems
, Rolls-Royce and Babcock to “progress the program through the design, prototyping and purchase of main long lead components for the first U.K. submarines,” the ministry said in a statement.
This means construction for the U.K. SSN-AUKUS vessels will be able to start in “the coming years” and it aims to ensure the stability of the UK’s domestic supply chains for the submarine.
Under the tripartite AUKUS agreement’s optimal pathway announced in March, Australia, the U.K. and U.S. are cooperating to help Australia field nuclear-powered attack submarines to replace its Collins-class boats. The SSN-AUKUS boats are expected to incorporate technology from all three countries (Defense Daily, March 13).
In the early 2030s, the U.S. expects to sell three to five Virginia-class attack submarines to Australia that it can use until the SSN-AUKUS is ready in the late 2030s.
The U.K. and Australia are set to use the same SSN-AUKUS design, but the countries will produce them domestically, separately.
BAE said its share of these awards consists of $4.8 billion. The company underscored it started early design work on the vessel in 2021, so this latest funding will cover development until 2028, “enabling BAE Systems to move into the detailed design phase of the program and begin to procure long-lead items.”
The company said manufacturing of the first SSN-AUKUS will start in the late 2020s.
BAE has delivered five of the seven Astute-class submarines to the Royal Navy, and the last two are in the “advances stages of construction.”
It is also designing and building the U.K.’s next nuclear weapon-armed ballistic missile submarines, the Dreadnought-class SSBN, with work underway on three of four total planned boats.
The U.K. government hopes to have the first U.K. SSN submarines delivered into service in the late 2030s, when they will replace the current Astute-class attack submarines.
The Australia boats are planned to be delivered by the early 2040s, requiring more time to develop their industry and personnel to build and field the submarines.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said SSN-AUKUS “will be the largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy, combining world-leading sensors, design and weaponry in one vessel.”
Beyond design activities in the contract, BAE Systems’ submarine shipyard at Barrows-in-Furness, Northern England and Rolls-Royce’s nuclear reactor manufacturing site in Raynesway, Derby, northern England will have their infrastructure developed and expanded “where needed to meet the requirement of the future submarine build program.”
Notably, the announcement confirmed Rolls-Royce is set to provide the nuclear reactors for both U.K. and Australian AAN-AUKUS submarines.
“This multi-billion-pound investment in the AUKUS submarine program will help deliver the long-term hunter-killer submarine capabilities the U.K. needs to maintain our strategic advantage and secure our leading place in a contested global order,” Grant Shapps, U.K. Defence Secretary, said in a statement.
“I’m committed to backing our defense industry, because it’s only with the mission critical support of businesses like BAE Systems that the U.K. can develop the advanced equipment our Armed Forces need to defend the British people in a more dangerous world,” he added.