US Navy sub boss reveals new details on AUKUS Virginia class sub sales to Australia
The Virginia-class USS Oregon (SSN 793) transits the Thames River after returning from routine operations in route to Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Wesley Towner)
WASHINGTON — The optimal pathway for the AUKUS security pact will include sales by the US of the three initial Virginia-class submarines to Australia in 2032, 2035 and 2038, according to a senior US Navy officer.
Vice Adm. Bill Houston, commander of submarine forces, told reporters Tuesday at the Naval Submarine League the sales in 2032 and 2035 are planned to be in-service submarines while the sale in 2038 will be a new construction vessel from US production lines.
That new construction submarine will be part of Block VII, Houston said, meaning it will not have the Virginia Payload Module, the mid-body section equipped on certain Virginia-class submarines that increases the boat’s missile capacity.
Though the AUKUS security arrangement with its centerpiece nuclear-powered sub provision was announced with great fanfare in March, a workable timeline for the ambitious project has only emerged in drips and drabs since, with Houston’s comments providing the latest clarity on the first phase of Australia’s sub acquisition. Later clean-sheet design nuclear-powered subs, dubbed SSN-AUKUS, are expected to follow the Virginia-class transfers.
RELATED: How the US and UK plan to get nuclear-powered subs to Australia
Although Houston laid out the preliminary timeline for the sales, both the White House and the Defense Department broadly have emphasized that the transactions will not occur until Australia’s navy and industrial base is prepared.
While AUKUS, a trilateral security pact between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, has won bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, lawmakers have shown increasing concern about the impact it will have on the US submarine industrial base — specifically whether industry can support the increased production necessary to support AUKUS as well as the pre-planned programs of record for the Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines.
The industrial base’s recent cadence of Virginia-class submarines has averaged between 1.2 and 1.3 boats per year compared to the service’s stated goal of two subs annually. That requirement for two Virginia-class boats, combined with the need to produce one Columbia-class sub per year, is what the Navy calls “1+2.”
“The recapitalization process to achieve the 1+2 cadence increases the demand on the US [submarine industrial base] by a ‘workload equivalent’ factor of five by 2028,” service leaders said in written congressional testimony on Oct. 25.
On top of all that, the anticipated Australian investment in US industry is expected to help bring the Navy’s Virginia-class production requirements from 2.0 to 2.33 subs per year.
The Navy and the Pentagon’s office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation recently completed a submarine industrial base study that the service said informed both the president’s recent supplemental funding request, which included $3.4 billion for the Navy’s submarine fleet, shipyard infrastructure and associated industrial base, as well as the upcoming fiscal year 2025 budget request.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday that while the study’s results are being briefed to lawmakers, the document is “procurement-sensitive and will not be released publicly.”
Matt Sermon, a senior Navy civilian overseeing a key office that worked with CAPE, said today at Naval Submarine League that one of the key issues that have “gated” the service from achieving its 1+2 cadence is workforce.
“Our ability to get the key technical trades, the engineering, the project management and leadership workforce to do one plus two plus sustainment plus partnership is challenged,” he told reporters. “That’s why you heard in my discussion today as well as in my everyday actions, that the focus on connecting with the nation, attraction, recruiting, training, retention is our foundational item.”