Edited By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Last Updated: January 06, 2023, 15:35 IST
Crew members stand on the topside of the submarine during the commissioning of the USS Illinois, the 13th ship of the Virginia class of submarines, Groton, Connecticut, US (Image: Reuters File)
Senators Reed and Inhofe said that production of Virginia-class nuclear submarines could stress the US submarine industrial base
A Republican and a Democrat senator have urged US President Joe Biden to not sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia because it would negatively impact America’s national security and also because vessels are ‘scarce.’
The leak was reported by Breaking Defence and the Guardian. The two senators were Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed and longest-serving Oklahoma senator and Republican Jim Inhofe.
The reports indicated that the US is facing pressure from within to not sell submarines to Australia and not before Australia is able to build its own as part of the AUKUS alliance.
This means, according to the Guardian report, that it could be decades before Australia gets its own nuclear submarines.
Australia tried to play down the leak, according to the Guardian, and said the ‘pathways for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines is taking shape’. The comments were made by a spokesperson for the Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, who further added that an announcement will be made in the first part of the year.
Australia is expected to make an announcement regarding the potential buying of nuclear submarines from the US or UK by March.
“We are concerned that what was initially touted as a ‘do no harm’ opportunity to support Australia and the United Kingdom and build long-term competitive advantages for the US and its Pacific Allies, may be turning into a zero-sum game for scarce, highly advanced US [Virginia-class submarines],” Inhofe and Reed said in their letter to US President Joe Biden, accessed by the Guardian and Breaking Defence.
The senators called for a ‘sober assessment of the facts’ and to take actions in such a way that the US submarine industrial base is not stressed. They urged the US president to adopt a ‘do no harm’ approach to Aukus negotiations and ‘ensure that sovereign US national security capabilities will not be diminished.’
The US is planning to build a fleet of at least 60 nuclear-powered submarines but struggles to meet its own needs.
US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, in December said the Biden administration is committed to providing Australia with this capability at the earliest possible date.
The senators warned that selling or transferring Virginia-class submarines before addressing the US Navy’s requirements could challenge its capabilities with respect to meeting sovereign wartime and peacetime requirements.
The senators said that even though they understood that it is of strategic value to have an US ally operating a world-class nuclear navy and allow it to have an upper hand over China, it should not come at the cost of ignoring ‘contemporary realities’.
Australia walked back on its $90bn conventional submarine contract with France to acquire nuclear submarine technology from the US or the UK as part of the AUKUS group.
In June 2022, former Australian defence minister Peter Dutton said that Australia would try to negotiate “to acquire, say, the first two submarines off the production line out of Connecticut.”
However, experts say that the US made it clear that time itself that it would not be able to build additional submarines.
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