Shipbuilder Austal has announced that Austal USA has been awarded a $670 million (US$450 million) contract by General Dynamics Electric Boat for nuclear submarine module construction. The contract will enable Austal USA to expand production capacity at its US shipyard in Mobile, Alabama (pictured) as part of the U.S. Navy Submarine Industrial Base (SIB). It…
The federal government has announced a new Jobs for Subs programme for 200 young workers required for the maintenance of US and UK nuclear submarines in Perth under Submarine Rotational Force – West (SRF-W). The Nuclear-Powered Submarine Graduate, Apprenticeship and Traineeship initiative is a government-funded recruitment and upskilling program for graduates, apprentices and trainees within…
Royal Australian Navy and Australian industry staff are set to begin maintenance work on the first US nuclear powered submarine to be docked in Perth as part of the AUKUS partnership. They will work on US Virginia class submarine USS Hawaii alongside US counterparts in a Submarine Tendered Maintenance Period (STMP) at HMAS Stirling in…
South Australian submarine workers have begun strike action at the government owned ASC maintenance and sustainment facility in Adelaide as they continue their long running dispute seeking pay parity with ASC workers in Western Australia. The 350 workers, members of the AMWU, AWU and ETU, who began their protected strike action in early May took…
Defence giants Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and Babcock have formed a new joint venture H&B Defence to develop sovereign capability for the AUKUS conventional armed, nuclear-powered submarine programme. H&B Defence combines nuclear submarine and shipbuilding experience from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to support the nuclear-powered submarine programme unforlding under AUKUS. HII…
The federal government has announced the go ahead for the life-of-type extension programme for the Collins class submarine fleet, extending their life until the arrival of Virginia class nuclear powered submarines. HMAS Farncomb will be the first of the Collins class submarines to undergo sustainment and capability enhancement at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide…
The federal government has announced Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and an AECOM and Aurecon Joint Venture as the concept design partners for South Australia’s new nuclear-powered submarine construction yard (NPSCY). KBR has extensive experience in supporting design and project management for defence infrastructure facilities and will design the area of the NPSCY that will…
Submarine builder ASC has acknowledged industrial action underway at its headquarters at Osborne Naval Shipyard in Adelaide and pledged to work for a mutually beneficial outcome to the dispute. However according to an unconfirmed report on Channel 7 news the government owned business cut a proposed wage rise of 10 percent to 6.75 percent, suggesting…
South Australian submarine workers have decided to walk off the job this morning at 7.30am at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in a dispute over unequal pay in the rapidly growing sector. The ASC maintenance and sustainment facility will come to a standstill as 350 trades and operator support workers take protected industrial action over poor…
Another step in the process of Australia acquiring, and eventually building, nuclear powered submarines has been taken with the first three Royal Australian Navy officers assigned to US Virginia class submarines based at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The officers, Lieutenant Commander James Heydon, Lieutenant Commander Adam Klyne and Lieutenant William Hall, were assigned after graduating…
