It is still unclear how much of the submarines’ nuclear propulsion technology will be shared with Australia, but the Australian defence community will almost certainly gain access to the submarines’ other state-of-the-art technologies, including sensors and data-processing systems for maritime domain awareness and tracking and evading adversary forces. The submarine project will likely serve as a forcing function to drive much of this new collaboration. The technologies at the heart of AUKUS are at the cutting edge of scientific research, and promise to deliver unprecedented advantages in military power. The United States is now so animated by competition with China that it will share the technology with one more country, Australia, for the first time in decades. The United States has only shared its nuclear submarine technology with the United Kingdom - at the height of the Cold War. Nuclear technology is in a class of its own. Countries often share military technology, but some technologies are more highly prized than others. This kind of technology integration is a radical idea. This will be the decades-long and multifaceted purpose of AUKUS - a transnational project racing to seize advantages in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and cyber technology. But more ambitiously, beyond submarines, AUKUS seeks to win the technology competition with China by pooling resources and integrating supply chains for defence-related science, industry, and supply chains. The submarine deal alone enmeshes the United States and United Kingdom into the region for decades. Aside from some high-level visits, Biden’s most notable initiative was elevating the Quad - comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States - to the summit level.ĪUKUS is qualitatively different. Progress on this has been positive, but incremental. The Biden administration promised to prioritise strategic competition with China, and to reinvigorate Washington’s alliances.

AUKUS goes much deeper than submarines - but it cannot do everything. The trilateral initiative seeks to expand an existing alliance structure - the Five Eyes intelligence alliance - into the field of leading-edge defence technology and industry. And they show that the United States and the United Kingdom are committed to strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific.īut while AUKUS shows a seriousness about naval power, it shows an even greater seriousness about alliances. They would break the taboo against nuclear power in Australia. The eight new boats would greatly extend the range, endurance and firepower of Australia’s submarine fleet. Nuclear-powered submarines for Australia was the most eye-catching part of the announcement of ‘ AUKUS’, the new trilateral security initiative joining Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the PacificĪuthor: Arzan Tarapore, Stanford University

Nuclear submarine by country