Mastodawn

This is a very good, if slightly out-of-date, article on the #nuclear #sub portion of the #AUKUS deal from the viewpoint of it’s impact on New England #shipyards.

Just days after the article was written, it was announced that UK and Australian heads of government will meet President Biden in San Diego on Monday to reveal the details of the implementation.

Reports are that 3-5 existing US #Virginia class attack subs will be leased to #Australia in the 30s to serve in the gap between the wind down of their #Collins class diesel-electrics and the roll out in the 40s of a new class of nuclear-powered attack sub to be based on a #UK design.

The reporting also indicates that Australia will make significant investments in sub building infrastructure. Taken together, these leaked details seem to point toward a solution to the central issue this article brings up about US capacity to build new subs fast enough.

https://www.courant.com/2023/03/06/cts-electric-boat-is-in-the-midst-of-a-once-in-generation-expansion-can-that-expand-to-serve-an-international-goal

CT’s Electric Boat looking to hire 5,000 more employees amidst “once in generation expansion”

The country is spending more than $13 billion a year on the two new, lethal and virtually undetectable classes of nuclear-powered submarines Electric Boat is building for the Navy, Virginia class a…

Hartford Courant

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Andrew Bennett Mar 11, 2023

My guess is that #Australia will help to fund a new, 3rd facility in the US capable of building #Virginia class boats, ideally run by #Austal with a technology transfer agreement that maximizes Australia’s #nuclear #sub building capacity.

Even better would be to see a fourth shipyard in Australia get awarded contracts to build the non-nuclear sections of Virginia class ships to get sent back to the US by barge for final assembly. This would be a great way to build up the specialized workforce that will be necessary to build the new class of subs in Australia in the 40s.

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Andrew Bennett Mar 11, 2023

Doubling the number of shipyards building subs doubles the number of subs we can build, of course. But it also means that we’ll have twice as many places that can make heavy repairs to these subs in the event of a shooting war. It also provides additional redundancy in the event of sabotage or attack.

Finally, an Australian shipyard that builds Virginia class boats improves our ability to repair our subs in the region, which will help us keep up the pace of operations with improved availability.