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Aukus deal: Australia seeks to acquire nuclear submarines before 2040, defence minister says
- Peter Dutton said more details about the plan to build the vessels under a partnership with the US and Britain will be announced ‘in the coming months’
- The partners had initially said work on the specifications could potentially take more than a year
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Australia expects to soon announce more specifics of a plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines under a security partnership with the US and Britain, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison in September announced the new defence alliance, Aukus, and moved to scrap a deal struck in 2016 with French shipbuilder Naval Group to build as many as 12 diesel-powered vessels, a project that had blown out to an estimated A$90 billion (US$66 billion).
The secretly negotiated security agreement infuriated Paris, which accused Canberra of lying.
“We will have an announcement within the next couple of months about which boat we are going with, what we can do in the interim,” Dutton told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday.
“Both the US and the UK understand the timelines, they understand what is happening in the Indo-Pacific, and they are very, very willing partners.”
The partners had initially said work on the details and specifications could potentially take 18 months. Morrison’s government faces a national election that must by held by May.
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