An artistic impression of an Australian nuclear-powered submarine at sea. Graphic: BAE Systems
The AUKUS nuclear submarine pact is among Defence projects that a federal parliamentary subcommittee is examining.
The Defence subcommittee of a Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade just held its first public hearing into the Department of Defence’s annual report for 2023-24.
The subcommittee is hearing evidence from the Defence and other government departments, non-government organisations and the public on areas of interest to it.
Subcommittee chairman Brendan O’Connor explains that “parliamentary committees are an important mechanism” to keep a check on government activities and departments, and to hear from experts and public interest groups.
“This year’s inquiry is focusing on priorities such as sovereign defence industrial priorities, Defence estate, security and resilience, the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, uncrewed/autonomous systems, AI’s integration into the Joint Force, and international defence co-operation and competition in a rapidly changing strategic environment,” he says.
Major Defence construction and upgrade projects have been planned for Western Australia (AUKUS) and South Australia (shipbuilding) in particular but also for Northern Territory (RAAF/US), Queensland (drones) and Tasmania (R&D).
The AUKUS submarine project is expected to cost up to $368 billion with Canberra recently making a ‘down’ payment of $798m to Washington DC.
Under ‘pillar one’ of the pact, the US will sell three second-hand Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines before Australia builds eight British-designed ones.
DEFENCE REPORT
The report for 2023-24 highlights several milestones including:
- personnel deployed to 25 operations including disaster relief;
- adding $29.41 billion into the economy;
- starting local ammunition production;
- signed a deal with Lockheed Martin for new multiple rocket launchers;
- buying 200 new Tomahawk cruise missiles;
- build 123 heavy armoured vehicles for Germany;
- spending $9-$12 billion on space capabilities.
Outside AUKUS, the department’s 2024 naval shipbuilding plan calls for $159 billion over 10 years to build 55 new vessels and create a 30-year pipeline of construction and sustainment projects, mainly across SA and WA, including nuclear-powered submarines, a combat surface fleet, more landing craft and greater amphibious capability for the Army.
An intergenerational pipeline of naval shipbuilding projects is expected to create 8500 jobs by 2030 and 20,000 new jobs over 30 years for the AUKUS program.
COMING UP: Projects for the five domains
