Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is wrong in his prediction that Australia will get no AUKUS submarines of its own, according to U.S. Congressman. Joe Courtney (D-CT).
“[Australia] realised that [to gain adequate] reach and stealth of their submarines, given what’s happening in the security environment, they’re going to have to spend a lot of money, almost regardless of what choice they made, so it made sense to go [down] the pathway they chose,” Courtney said.
Australia’s first submarine under AUKUS isn’t due to be delivered until 2032, the second in 2035, and the third in 2038.
Courtney is a ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces. From 2018 to 2022, he chaired that body.
He also co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus with Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), and he’s been co-chair of the Friends of Australia caucus since 2017.
His District includes the manufacturing facility of Electric Boat, the primary builder of submarines for the United States Navy for more than 100 years.
“... Marco Rubio is now Secretary of State, he voted for all the AUKUS provisions [when in the Senate] and has publicly stated that he’s a strong supporter of AUKUS.
“Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor, served on the Armed Services Committee with me. He wasn’t on Seapower, but he was on the Readiness Committee and got brought up to speed in terms of the readiness issues for the Navy, and he also has publicly expressed strong support for AUKUS. And so that, to me, bodes well.”
He downplayed the risk, on which Turnbull based his criticism, that the United States would simply use any submarines earmarked for Australia.
“The Navy’s shipbuilding plan for submarine deployments is over 60 Virginia-class attack submarines. Today, we’re roughly at around 51 if you include the three Sea Wolf attack submarines and add them to the fleet of Los Angeles and Virginia class subs that are still in operation today.
The new Congress had also “stepped up its game” in both funding contracts for submarine construction and direct investment in the industrial base, which Courtney said was “quite unique.”
“So far, there’s been over $6 billion [that] the U.S. has invested in the submarine industrial base. The continuing resolution and supplemental that we just passed at the end of December increased that amount more. The projection is that there’s going to be probably $3 to $4 billion in new money in the ‘26 budget when it comes over later this year.”
Work on the project was also being spread across a larger number of manufacturers, which should help to alleviate any potential bottlenecks, he explained.
“Austal shipyard in Alabama is now doing steel fabrication to take some of the load off of that work, [and] a Philly shipyard is now going to also become a strategic supply chain company to take some of this work that’s not highly classified, but obviously essential in terms of getting [production] up.
“So I’m very bullish on the fact that we’re going to definitely overcome the slowdown that COVID [caused].”
However, Courtney also revealed during the interview that his optimism was based on a measure other than finished sub delivery.
“It basically uses a different metric than the actual submarine delivery ... and instead is based on tonnage, which is a legitimate metric, in my opinion, when you’re talking about ship construction,” he explained. “We’re building two classes of submarines simultaneously, the Columbia subs, which are about 21,000 tons [and the] Virginia sub [which is] is 7,800 tons.
“There’s going to be a block of Virginia subs that are going to be a little heavier. They’re going to be about 10,000 tons with the payload module extension. So between COVID and the fact that Columbia is online, in my opinion, spending a lot of time with the people down at the yard, the trajectory of tonnage is positive.”
Questioned on what that meant for Australia, the Congressman again referred to the bipartisan support for the project.
“There is consensus on the fact that there’s a desire for us to keep the production and funding levels at that level of two [Virigina submarines] per year and full funding for Columbia. [But] full disclosure, if you go back and look at what the delivery dates were supposed to be for those subs pre-COVID, they’re late. I mean, there’s just no question.
“[But] the Navy’s projection right now is that by 2028, with the submarine industrial base investments, we really should be back to [producing] 2.0 Virginia [submarines per year].”
