AUKUS
AUKUS, also styled as Aukus, is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States intended to "promote a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable." Initially announced on 15 September 2021, the partnership involves two lines of effort referred to as pillars. Pillar 1 focuses on Australia acquiring nuclear-powered attack submarines and the rotational basing of US and UK nuclear-powered attack submarines in Australia. Pillar 2 entails the collaborative development of advanced capabilities in six technological areas: undersea capabilities, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence and autonomy, advanced cyber, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, and electronic warfare; and in two broader functional areas: innovation and information sharing.
AUKUS is widely seen as a response to the perception among its members that the People's Republic of China poses a threat to the Indo-Pacific region. The Chinese government said, when the partnership was announced, that it risked "severely damaging regional peace" and had a "cold-war mentality".
A direct result of the creation of the partnership was Australia's controversial cancellation of a French-Australian submarine contract worth €56 billion. The Australian government only gave the French government a few hours' notice of this before the public announcement of AUKUS. The Australian government agreed to a €555 million compensation settlement with French defence contractor Naval Group.
Background
Naval Group–Australia strategic partnership agreement
In 2009, two years after the start of the project to replace the Royal Australian Navy's conventionally-powered submarines, the Australian Defence White Paper stated: "The Government has ruled out nuclear propulsion for these submarines".In 2016, Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull signed a A$50 billion deal with the majority French government-owned company Naval Group to design a new generation of submarines, known as the, under the "Future Submarine Program", scheduled to replace the Collins class. The design was based on the latest French nuclear-powered attack submarine, the Barracuda class, which required converting the nuclear propulsion to conventional propulsion. Another difference was that Australia chose to equip it with a United States Navy combat system and torpedo with Lockheed Martin Australia selected to integrate them into the design. Australia typically requires that part of their vessels be built there, which increases the cost. In this case it corresponded to 60 per cent of the contract value, with France handling the technology transfer.
In 2019, Australia signed a strategic partnership agreement with Naval Group to design and construct twelve submarines to be built in Australia. However, the project was beset by delays and cost overruns, leading to uncertainty and tension behind the scenes. The revised cost, including inflation during the length of the program, was A$90 billion.
In February 2021, an initial design plan was rejected as being too expensive, and Naval Group were given until September to improve their proposal. At a Senate inquiry in early June 2021, with delays ongoing, Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty revealed under questioning that he had considered making contingency plans if the French project was to fail, admitting that there had been ongoing problems for over a year. Two weeks later, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison met French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris and expressed concern about the project going off track, to which Macron replied that France was giving "full and complete" commitment and would proceed "further and faster if possible".
On 30 August 2021, the French and Australian defence and foreign affairs ministers released a joint statement reaffirming the project, stating that the "Ministers underlined the importance of the Future Submarine program."
Less than three weeks later, Australia decided to publicly cancel the contract with Naval Group for the Attack class submarines despite having already spent about A$2.4 billion on the French project. It was expected that Australia would have to pay hundreds of millions of euros in penalties for cancelling the contract. The contract contained "control gates" with "off-ramps" at which point Australia could withdraw from the contract.
The Australian Department of Defence wrote to Naval Group on the same day the security partnership was announced. The French Ministry of Defence claim the department told them that "they were satisfied with the submarine's achievable performance and with the progress of the program." Naval Group said that Australia "terminated the contract for convenience".
Morrison said that Australia now required a nuclear-powered submarine which has clear advantages of greater endurance, speed, power, stealth and carrying capacity than a conventionally-powered submarine, based on changes in the strategic situation in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia–UK–US negotiations
The Sunday Telegraph reported that in March 2021 the Australian navy chief Vice Admiral Michael Noonan met in London with his British counterpart Admiral Tony Radakin and requested assistance from the UK and the US in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. The Daily Telegraph reported that British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab "helped broker the deal". The New York Times also reported that Australia first approached the UK for assistance. The Wall Street Journal reported Australia approached the US in April 2021. A trilateral discussion was held between Johnson, Biden and Morrison at the June 2021 G7 summit held in Cornwall, England. The talks took place without the knowledge of the French government or Naval Group. This approach was possible as a result of the UK not entering into a formal foreign policy and security treaty in the post-Brexit deal with the EU. As a result, the UK was free to pursue enhanced cooperation with other allies. Axios reported that the Biden administration sought assurances from Australia that cancelling the contract was not dependent on the US providing them with assistance and that cancelling was a fait accompli. Morrison said Australia had been considering an alternative to the Attack class submarine deal for the past 18 months.Although the joint announcement by Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, British prime minister Boris Johnson and US president Joe Biden did not mention any other country by name, except France, anonymous White House sources have alleged it is designed to counter the influence of Chinese forces in the Indo-Pacific region. However, Johnson later told parliament that the move was not intended to be "adversarial towards any other power".
United States secretary of state Antony Blinken and United States secretary of defense Lloyd Austin said that Australia did not have any "reciprocal requirements" as a consequence of the US sharing nuclear submarine propulsion technology such as Australia hosting intermediate-range missiles.
In 2024, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, made undisclosed "political commitments" with its AUKUS partners in an agreement for the transfer of naval nuclear technology to Australia, sparking concerns about the potential for high-level radioactive waste to be stored in the country. The White House confirmed that Australia, the UK, and the US reached a significant milestone in their cooperation, essential for Australia's future nuclear-powered submarine capabilities. Despite assurances from the government, critics, including the Greens, warned of possible loopholes that could lead to uranium enrichment and radioactive waste management in Australia.
Features
Pillar 1 – Nuclear-powered submarines
Under the partnership, the US and UK will share nuclear propulsion technology with Australia, as they have done with each other since 1958 under the US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement. The Royal Australian Navy will acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines armed with conventional weapons. The basic design and key technologies will be decided by the Australian Nuclear-Powered Submarine Task Force an 18-month Department of Defence research project headed by Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, begun in September 2021 with assistance from the US and UK.Australia will extend the life of its Collins class submarines that the Attack class was due to replace and may consider leasing or buying nuclear-powered submarines from the US or the UK in the interim until the delivery of its future nuclear powered submarines. Also in the interim, Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said that Australia will have regular visits by US and UK nuclear-powered submarines. The annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations between the Australian Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defence and the US Secretaries of State and Defense held in September 2021 endorsed "increasing logistics and sustainment capabilities of US surface and subsurface vessels in Australia."
Australia considered purchasing French nuclear submarines which use nuclear reactors fuelled by low-enriched uranium at less than 6%. However, French reactor designs have to be refuelled every ten years, and Australia does not have a civil nuclear capability with nuclear energy prohibited. In contrast, American and British designs power the submarines for the expected life of the submarines using nuclear reactors fuelled by highly enriched uranium at 93% enrichment.
Currently, only six countries have nuclear submarines, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and India. The New York Times reported that Australia will probably buy HEU from the US for the nuclear reactor that powers the submarine. The United States' naval reactors are all pressurized water reactors. The latest UK propulsion system is the Rolls-Royce PWR3 that will power the Royal Navy's new submarines currently being built and is "based on a US design but using UK reactor technology".
US officials have said that sharing nuclear propulsion technology with Australia is a "one-off" and that they have no "intention of extending this to other countries". South Korea, also a US treaty ally, has had ambitions to acquire nuclear-powered submarines since 2017 and was reportedly refused US assistance in September 2020 because of nuclear non-proliferation.
On 22 November 2021, Australia, the US and the UK signed the Exchange of Naval Nuclear Propulsion Information Agreement treaty. The treaty permits the disclosure of information by the US and the UK to Australia and its use. The US is restricted by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 from sharing information without an agreement and the UK is also restricted by the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement unless authorised. The treaty was considered in Australia by the Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, in the UK by the Parliament and in the US by Congress. The ENNPIA treaty entered into force on 8 February 2022.
On 31 August 2022, the UK announced that Australian submariners would receive training aboard s.
On 13 March 2023, AUKUS announced that a new nuclear powered submarine class would be built in the UK and Australia to be called the SSN-AUKUS, also known as the SSN-A. The US intends to sell Australia three nuclear-powered submarines, subject to congressional approval, to ensure there is no capability gap as the Collins class submarines are retired, with the potential to sell up to two more if needed. RAN personnel will be embedded in the RN and USN to receive nuclear training and at UK and US submarine industrial bases. The Submarine Rotational Force-West initiative which will from as early as 2027 base USN Virginia class and RN Astute class submarines on a rotational basis at the RAN's HMAS Stirling submarine base in order to accelerate Australia's ability to operate nuclear-powered submarines and to contribute to security in the Indo-Pacific region.
The SSN-AUKUS class will based on the UK SSNR design already under development. The RN is planned to receive its first SSN-AUKUS class submarine as early as the late 2030s. The RAN is planned to receive their first submarine in the early 2040s. Australia will reportedly build five SSN-AUKUS submarines. The RAN is planned to receive their first Virginia class submarine from the US in the early 2030s.
The Australian Submarine Agency was established on 1 July 2023. It has the role of managing the Australian nuclear submarine program, and includes personnel posted to the UK and US.
In November 2023, Capt. Lincoln Reifsteck USN, the USN's AUKUS integration and acquisition program manager, talked at the Naval Submarine League's annual symposium. He said that, in 2032 and 2035, the USA will sell to Australia in-service Block IV Virginia class submarines, the first of which was commissioned in 2020, and the final will likely commission around 2026. Thus, Australia would receive submarines with between six and 15 years' worth of use, out of their designed service life of 33 years. He also said that the USA would sell a new Block VII boat to Australia in 2038, the Block VIIs being the original Virginia class length without the Virginia Payload Module, set to begin construction in FY2029.
On 1 June 2025, the UK government announced that it will build up to twelve SSN-AUKUS submarines to replace the Royal Navy's seven Astute-class attack submarines from the late 2030s. The announcement also said that there will be a major expansion of industrial capability at BAE Systems Submarines at Barrow and at Rolls-Royce Submarines at Derby, with a new boat scheduled to be built every eighteen months. On 26 July 2025, the UK and Australian governments signed the , a 50-year bilateral defence agreement to facilitate bilateral cooperation on the construction of Australia's SSN-AUKUS submarines.