AUKUS governments and industry press ‘go’ on submarine build

The Australian and UK Governments have announced a significant milestone between the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) and industry partners that will support the delivery of the SSN AUKUS fleet of locally built, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

The SSNA platform will replace the Astute Class SSN for the UK Royal Navy from the late 2030s, with the first Australian AUKUS SSNs to be delivered in the early 2040s.

The ASA, BAE Systems and ASC Pty Ltd have signed a Tasking Statement, a contract kicking off the joint development of build strategy, supply chain management plans and a workforce development strategy.

The outgoing Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of ASC Stuart Whiley said: “The Tasking Statement is an important step in establishing a sovereign nuclear submarine build capability in Australia. The programme is anticipated to generate thousands of highly skilled jobs over its lifetime.

“SSN AUKUS is a multi-national, multi-generational programme through which ASC will invest in developing the critical skills required to build a nuclear submarine fleet in Australia. It’s hard to imagine, but the children at school today will be the ones building our submarine fleet of tomorrow.”

The Managing Director, BAE Systems’ Submarines business Steve Timms said the build, test and commissioning of nuclear submarines was a hugely complex engineering endeavour.

“Through these agreements, we’re able to share our vast experience of nuclear submarine capabilities with our industry partners to support the build of submarines in Australia.

“We have a long history of delivering sovereign capability and security in Australia and the UK and the Tasking Statement underpins further support to essential delivery capabilities in Adelaide, with support from Barrow.”

The Chief Executive Officer of BAE Systems Australia Craig Lockhart said the SSN AUKUS submarine would integrate cutting edge technologies and advanced materials.

Lockhart said: “It is a complex build challenge that industry partners are coming together to deliver. Work is underway on defining the delivery schedule, the enablement environment for future information transfer between the UK, US, and Australia, as well as design of the new yard at Osborne to accommodate the build.”

Over the past eight months, government and industry partners have made progress across a number of areas for delivery of the SSN AUKUS. In November, the ASA, BAE Systems and ASC signed an AUKUS Mobilisation Deed, which provides a framework to contract with the Australian Government through the ASA. That followed the Heads of Agreement and the tri-lateral announcement of the Commonwealth of Australia’s shipbuilders in March.

Integrated Project Teams are now working to oversee tasks such as nuclear stewardship, infrastructure functional requirements, business enablement and build preparation. Underpinning business functions, such nuclear safety and assurance, engineering and build operations have also been established.

Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and an AECOM and Aurecon Joint Venture are preparing the concept design for Australia’s new nuclear-powered submarine construction yard (NPSCY) at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide.

The NPSCY development will cover more than 75 hectares and ultimately be the most advanced manufacturing facility in Australia.

Further reading:
ASC, BAE Systems to begin planning, procurement to build SSN-AUKUS submarines
Submarine workers leave for for Pearl Harbor AUKUS training
Design partners selected for nuclear submarine shipyard

Picture: BAE Systems/SSN-AUKUS