AUKUS, a security alliance between the US, UK, and Australia, is speeding up its nuclear submarine software to fill in infrastructure, human resources, as well as technology-sharing practices.
The US Navy plans to teach 30 American sailors on how to fix its Virginia-class vessels using the submarine sweet Emory S Land in Australia this summer, according to a report by Defense News from soon December.
According to the report, the training will aid in the establishment of a nuclear-powered attack underwater maintenance capability at the American Australian naval base HMAS Stirling.
The AUKUS nuclear submarine program consists of three phases: first, the US and UK will operate submarines out of Stirling, Australia, then Australia will buy and use US-built and used Virginia-class submarines, and finally, it will build and operate its own nuclear attack submarine ( SSNs ).
At Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Barrow in Furness in England, American soldiers, sailors, and government residents involved in AUKUS are already receiving training from the US Navy in nuclear submarine-related things.
A second group of American seafarers will be assigned to work on US submarines in 2024, and as part of their training, they will start performing repair at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, according to the report.
The US and Australian military joined Royal Navy personnel in Faslane in October 2023 to receive training on maintaining nuclear-powered submarines, according to the UK Ministry of Defense ( MOD ).
The US and Australian Submarine Support teams formed an Advance Verification Team ( AVT ) to improve their understanding of the industrial and maintenance skills required to manage and maintain nuclear-powered submarines, according to a UK MOD announcement.
Additionally, the UK MOD announced that AUKUS would receive an additional 4 billion pounds ( US$ 5.1 billion ), with money set aside for the design, development, and purchase of main long-lead aspects of the partnership’s first UK boats.
In terms of physical and human system, AUKUS also has a long way to go despite these collaborative efforts.
According to an article written by John Bruni and Pat Tyrell for the Australian Institute for International Affairs ( AIIA ) in August 2022, the question of whether any of the AUKUS submarines will be built in Adelaide, Australia, has not received much attention.
However, the American government has stated that it will make the country’s first SSN-AUKUS submarine by the end of the decade, and that the Royal Australian Navy will receive two locally-built ships in the first 2040s. The American government added that it started approving development for the future Submarine Construction Yard in Osborne, South Australia, in 2023.
Bruni and Tyrell emphasize that Australia needs to develop significant nuclear engineering expertise, intensive support and maintenance groups, nuclear regulatory authorities, and specialized crisis team in order to speed up the SSN-AUKUS system.
They even claim that in order to provide the very competent skills required for nuclear submarine repair, Australia’s universities will need to set up nuclear engineering facilities and establish a center for the field. Additionally, the American government needs to create infrastructure for the safe transportation of radioactive materials there.
Flinders University in South Australia and US and UK universities have entered into agreements to create specialized skills for the development of AUKUS nuclear submarines, according to a report by World Nuclear News in March 2023.
According to World Nuclear News, Flinders will be able to provide South American students with undergraduate and graduate programs thanks to the contracts. It mentions that Flinders University will collaborate with the University of Manchester, the head universities of the UK’s Nuclear Technology Education Consortium, on its doctoral-level research training and nuclear masters programs.
AUKUS’ advancement in nuclear submarine development and other delicate military fields may also be hampered by ability shortages in the marine shipbuilding industry and technology-sharing problems.
Paul McCleary and Cristina Gallardo write in a March 2023 issue of Politico that it will be difficult to get AUKUS operational for the long term due to the intricate alterations required in trade control regulations and growing worries that overworked US and UK ships may handle the workload.
Yet the combined naval shipping programs of the US and the UK, according to McCleary and Gallardo, cannot compete with China’s output.
They claim that maintaining AUKUS over the ensuing decades is based on a strong presumption of political commitment, sustained financing, and cohesion until the first steel for the SSN-AUUS is cut in about ten years.
McCleary and Gallardo draw attention to the possibility that US defense export controls from the Cold War may be out of date because they were originally intended to keep sensitive military technologies from falling into Russian hands.
Since the SSN-AUKUS will definitely heavily rely on US-made parts, they claim that the US needs to reconsider its export restrictions in order to permit the transfer of delicate nuclear propulsion technology within a reasonable period.
They mention that AUKUS Pillar Two solutions like artificial intelligence ( AI), electronic warfare, fast, and quantum technologies are subject to US military trade restrictions.
At the same time, AUKUS has sparked worries about the security bloc’s effects on local surveillance and strategic stability from a number of Southeast Asian nations.
Ian Storey and William Choong acknowledge that Southeast Asian nations have expressed worries about outside intervention, hands races, aggressive actions by major powers, and underwater intrusions in inland sea lanes in a report published in March 2023 by the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
While AUKUS officials have gone to great lengths to explain the defense bloc’s motivations and allay concerns from local states, Storey and Choong point out that big players like Malaysia and Indonesia are likely to continue to voice their reservations.