<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/23/aukus-should-expand-us-congressman-shipbuilding-nations>
"A leading US congressman admits the US must substantially boost its defence
manufacturing capacity in order to sell Australia nuclear submarines under
Aukus, floating the idea of adding Japan, South Korea or Norway to the pact to
help build more ships.
Anthony Albanese has returned from Washington DC with Donald Trump’s
endorsement of Aukus and a fresh show of support from longtime backers of the
military pact in the US congress. Both Republican and Democratic politicians
reaffirmed their support to help Australia buy second-hand US nuclear
submarines, even as concerns still remain about whether US shipyards –
currently not working fast enough to meet the US navy’s own requirements – can
produce enough boats to sell to Australia.
Congressman Adam Smith, Democratic leader of the House armed services
committee, said Aukus was important to help the US meet its “massive needs” in
national security, but that the country needed to build more submarines.
“I think we’ve got some work to do. I’m confident we can get there, but that’s
why the partnership is so important. We have to improve our defence industrial
base, we can’t do that on our own,” he told
Guardian Australia.
“I hope we can explore partnerships with other nations as well; South Korea,
Japan, Norway. They’re all capable shipbuilders. I hope we can grow the Aukus
partnership on those goals.”
Under the Aukus agreement, Australia will contribute billions to increase US
defence industry capacity. Albanese told a breakfast meeting of US
congressional leaders that Australia had already sent US$1bn (A$1.6b), with
more to come.
“There’ll be $1bn on its way before Christmas,” the prime minister said.
“And then a further $1bn next year because we understand that we want to uplift
your industrial capacity so that we make a contribution for when we purchase
your Virginia-class submarines.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
