Australia and the United Kingdom announced a bilateral deal to produce a new class of nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS partnership, according to Reuters.
Canberra will buy US Virginia-class nuclear submarines from the United States in the next decade. The UK and Australia will later build the new class of AUKUS submarines at Barrow-in-Furness in the UK and South Australia under the AUKUS pact announced in 2023.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said after a meeting with his British and American counterparts on Thursday in London:
We will be negotiating a treaty, a bilateral treaty, between Australia and the UK to enable our portion of AUKUS. We will be operating the same class of submarine. So, when you look at the industrial cooperation, the technology transfer, the way in which all of those mechanisms operate to do that, that is the subject of the treaty.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey stated that the AUKUS defence ministers meeting also reached an agreement to use British-made Stingray torpedoes in P-8A Maritime Patrol Aircraft. These are used as submarine search aircraft in the Indo-Pacific region.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin declared that AUKUS partners had conducted significant experiments on land, underwater and in the electromagnetic spectrum to enhance combat capabilities as part of AUKUS Pillar Two.
AUKUS partners are reportedly expanding their capabilities to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies. They will also conduct a large-scale drone exercise later this year.
