Australia announced on Thursday that it will invest billions in docks, shipyards, and factories in Australia and Britain to build the nuclear-powered submarines, under the AUKUS security pact with Britain and the US.

Also, Australia announced that British BAE Systems is undertaking the submarine development project in collaboration with domestic shipyards. Under the AUKUS deal, Australia will buy up to five nuclear-powered submarines from Washington in the early 2030s before jointly building and operating a new class, SSN-AUKUS, with Britain about a decade later.

Australia will become the seventh country to have nuclear-powered submarines, while bolstering US and British shipyards already plagued by delays and cost overruns.

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Australia will give Britain $3.1 billion for designing the conventionally armed SSN-AUKUS and expanding a Rolls-Royce factory, which makes nuclear reactors for submarines.

Australia has already agreed to invest $3 billion in US shipyards building the Virginia-class nuclear submarines, which will be sold early next decade.

Australia will also invest $993 million to prepare a naval base in Western Australia for the submarines in question. The total cost of the work is expected to be around A$8 billion.

AUKUS is building Australia’s industrial capacity and growing our workforce. Today’s announcement of our Sovereign Submarine Build and Sustainment Partners is a momentous step in delivering Australia’s conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines 🇦🇺🇬🇧🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/DmHsmeAzDN

— Richard Marles (@RichardMarlesMP) March 22, 2024

Australia has announced that BAE Systems has been selected to build the submarines in South Australia in partnership with local company ASC. Work is expected to begin in the late 2020s, after the completion of at least A$2 billion worth of new shipbuilding facilities.

Once the submarines are in the water, ASC will take over maintenance and logistics. The company, which builds and maintains Australia’s Collins-class diesel fleet, will partner with US and British companies.

According to Reuters, the SSN-AUKUS submarines will also be built in Britain and BAE won a $5.1 billion contract in October 2023 to begin design and infrastructure work at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard.

Alongside ASC, we’ve been selected to build Australia's new fleet of nuclear powered submarines as part of the AUKUS trilateral security pact between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Read more: https://t.co/Mt0PjQqaQH pic.twitter.com/E7YyQNYmFp

— BAE Systems (@BAESystemsplc) March 21, 2024

Nuclear submarines require a skilled workforce and BAE and ASC will establish a joint skills center in South Australia to begin training workers. Australia plans to send about 100 ASC workers to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, next year to train at US naval facilities.

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