Amid Controversy, Australia Announces Location for AUKUS Project

[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Yang] The "AUKUS" nuclear submarine project among the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia continues to advance amid controversy. On August 24, the Australian government announced that it has jointly selected the Henderson Defense Precinct, located south of Perth, as the future maintenance and shipbuilding base for nuclear submarines in collaboration with the Western Australian government.

According to the "Navy News" website on the 24th, as a significant milestone for the Australian Navy's infrastructure and the AUKUS defense agreement, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Western Australian Premier Roger Cook jointly announced the Henderson Defense Precinct as Australia's primary naval shipbuilding and maintenance hub. This site selection plan designates an exclusive area for the Australian Navy's shipbuilding, surface fleet maintenance, and the provision of critical support infrastructure for nuclear submarines.

According to the comprehensive investment plan released by the Australian government at the end of April, approximately AUD 25 billion will be invested over the next ten years to build shipbuilding and support capabilities at the Henderson Defense Precinct, with initial work including the provision of a new floating dry dock. Long-term service planning includes several dry docks. It is expected that this location will be responsible for constructing the "Future Frigate" procured from Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is an improved version of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's active "Maya" class missile frigate. At the same time, the submarine berthing area at the Henderson Defense Precinct can accommodate the active "Collins" class conventional submarines, and in the next step, it will also have the capability to provide emergency berthing and base-level maintenance for the attack nuclear submarines of Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

On September 15, 2021, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia announced the establishment of the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, with the core goal of helping Australia acquire a fleet of attack nuclear submarines. This also means that Australia will become the second country, after the United Kingdom, to obtain top nuclear propulsion technology from the United States.

To advance this unprecedented and decades-long nuclear submarine program, the Australian government not only needs to incur exorbitant shipbuilding costs but also must develop supporting infrastructure and talent training.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, to accommodate and operate nuclear submarines, Australia is undertaking large-scale infrastructure construction, with total investments expected to reach tens of billions of Australian dollars. The designated Henderson Defense Precinct is one of the nuclear submarine maintenance bases. Additionally, Australia is spending billions of dollars to expand the Stirling Naval Base as the future home port for nuclear submarines, with related projects including the renovation of submarine docks, the construction of radioactive waste treatment facilities, and the upgrading of personnel training facilities.

The greater challenge lies in the fact that Australia has previously adhered to a "nuclear-free" policy, and its talent pool in the reactor engineering field directly related to nuclear-powered submarines is nearly nonexistent. To promote the AUKUS nuclear submarine project, Australia has to build a brand new nuclear engineering talent system from scratch, including sending over 200 technicians to Pearl Harbor, USA, for 18 months of hands-on training.

As the AUKUS project progresses, both Australia and the United States have faced opposition. In June of this year, officials from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom announced that the first phase delivery of attack nuclear submarines under the AUKUS project would be entirely comprised of second-hand American attack nuclear submarines, abandoning the previously agreed mixed procurement of new and second-hand submarines.

There is a widespread belief that this is due to the severe shortage of shipbuilding capacity in the United States, which is unable to meet its own target of building two new Virginia-class attack nuclear submarines each year. Many U.S. Congress members have questioned why the United States would sell nuclear submarines to Australia when its own military equipment needs have not been fully met.

This move has raised concerns within Australia about the weaker performance and shorter service life of the second-hand nuclear submarines to be received. The Australian newspaper reported that an increasing number of Australian lawmakers oppose the continued advancement of the AUKUS nuclear submarine project, believing that the core goal of the project is not to provide Australia with new nuclear submarines, but rather to establish a foothold for U.S. nuclear submarines operating in the South Pacific.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly warned that the AUKUS project is an "exclusive small circle" and "trilateral security partnership" cobbled together by the U.S., U.K., and Australia, stating that "engaging in camp confrontation goes against the trend of the times and the common will of regional countries."

The Chinese side believes that the nuclear submarine cooperation under the AUKUS framework is by no means for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, but rather "textbook-level nuclear proliferation," involving a large amount of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium (with an enrichment of 93% to 97%) that is long detached from the oversight of the International Atomic Energy Agency, posing serious nuclear proliferation risks.