'Strategic power': UK Defence Secretary foreshadows Australia's elite military capability with AUKUS submarines
Australia will join an “exclusive club”, becoming an elite military country after a key defence acquisition, according to the UK Defence Secretary.
The UK Defence Secretary has hailed the AUKUS-Class submarines as a major strategic asset, telling Australia it has “joined an exclusive club”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was joined by Ben Wallace at the Barrow ship building yards on Wednesday where Australian navy personnel will soon be sent to train.
The first SSN-AUKUS submarines will be built at BAE Barrow providing both Australia and the United Kingdom with the elite navy capability.
Australia’s next generation of shipbuilders will train at the Cumbria docks before the Osborne shipyard in South Australia begins manufacturing the new nuclear-propelled submarines.
Touring the facilities with Mr Albanese, the UK Defence Secretary said the AUKUS agreement was a “big jump” for Australia and would give it unprecedented military capabilities.
“It (Australia) becomes a strategic power… It's joined an exclusive club, that, in theory, it could send the submarines under the water around the world,” Mr Wallace said at a press conference.
“But I think, fundamentally, it's a strategic capability. And it keeps adversaries guessing, ‘Where's your submarine? How many submarines have you got?’
“And we're going to design these submarines to deliver payloads, a step change from what they currently deliver. They are going to be able to do a huge range of stuff, some of it very secret, some of that very traditional strike capabilities.”
The AUKUS agreement will make Australia only the seventh country to possess the nuclear submarine technology.
Under the deal, the SSN-AUKUS class will incorporate both British and American designs and technology.
But the subs are only expected to hit the water by the early 2040s at an expected cost of up to $368 billion.
Mr Albanese also further detailed the timeline of the entire project which will include Australia acquiring at least three American Virginia-class submarines by the end of the decade.
“You'll have a timeframe of the design being done, completed by the end of this decade, but most of it being done in the next three or four years,” the Prime Minister said.
“And construction activity we expect to start, will commence here first, but will start by the end of this decade as well at Osborne and step up.
“In the meantime, of course, we will purchase three, but with the possibility of a couple more, Virginia class submarines from the United States so that we ensure that there's not a capability gap between the Collins and the SSN-AUKUS being manufactured.”