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Britain said on Wednesday it was moving ahead fully on the AUKUS deal following the conclusion of a long-awaited US review.
But Defense Secretary John Healey said the trilateral submarine and technology agreement – designed to boost deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific – must move decisively to the delivery phase.
“Our reviews are complete. Now, we get to work,” Healey said during three-way talks with AUK defense chiefs at the Pentagon, including US War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles.
“Ocus is too important and the stakes are too high to allow it to proceed.”
He stressed that the UK supports a £6 billion investment in submarine infrastructure under the current government.
As part of the agreement, the US will sell Australia several nuclear-powered submarines, while the three countries are working on a new ship, called SSN-AUKUS, which will not enter service until the end of the next decade.
Critics of the deal in Washington, including US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, have expressed concerns about selling submarines abroad at a time when US shipyards are struggling to meet America’s own needs.
The future of AUKUS was in doubt following the recently completed US review led by Colby. On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Caucus was “full steam ahead”, citing US President Donald Trump’s statement in October.
Rubio said, “As (Trump) said, AUKUS is fully prepared going forward. And I know that the War Department – although Secretary Hegseth will discuss this further – has conducted a review looking at how we can expand this relationship, how we can move it forward, so that it can be about a number of things.”
A former senior British official said: “The British, Australian and US administrations have taken Trump’s words to mean that any doubts have been eliminated.”
The UK’s Strategic Defense Review, published in June, estimated that the Royal Navy would acquire 12 Auckus-class submarines by the end of the 2030s.
Nearly half of all estimated weapons system spending in the SDR is attributable to pledges.
The Ministry of Defense said that the SSN-Acus will be the most powerful submarine ever operated by the Royal Navy.
The UK is investing about £220 million over 10 years in the Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbrian shipyard, which is ultimately to build SSN-AUK attack submarines.
The site is in need of urgent development and will need to attract skilled workers to the huge submarine plant operated by BAE Systems.
