In March, Australia, the UK and the US announced details of the so-called Aukus pact to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines by the late 2030s. The pact aims to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has now announced that the next phase of next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine is underway. UK businesses will be behind the design and manufacture of the world’s most advanced submarines, following the awarding of £4 billion of contracts.
The signing of the Detailed Design and Long Leads (D2L2) Phase with BAE Systems (BAES), Rolls-Royce and Babcock represents a significant milestone for both the UK and the trilateral AUKUS programme as a whole, in the lead up to build the future class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, known as SSN-AUKUS.
AUKUS relations
The contracts totalling £4 billion will progress the programme through the design, prototyping and purchase of main long lead components for the first UK submarines, allowing construction to commence in the coming years and ensure the stability and resilience of our domestic supply chain.
Alongside the design development and long-lead procurement, infrastructure at the submarine shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness and the nuclear reactor manufacturing site in Raynesway, Derby will be developed and expanded where needed to meet the requirement of the future submarine build programme.
The aim is to deliver the first UK submarines into service in the late 2030s to replace the current Astute-Class vessels, and the first Australian submarines will follow in the early 2040s. They will be the largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy, combining world-leading sensors, design and weaponry in one vessel.
Construction of the UK’s submarines will take place principally in Barrow-in-Furness, while Australia will work over the next decade to build up its submarine industrial base, and will build its submarines in Australia with Rolls-Royce supplying the nuclear reactors for all UK and Australian submarines.
Levelling up
The agreement is expected to provide decades of work at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, where it employs more than 10,000 people. BAE said the deal will fund investment in its supply chain and recruitment of more than 5,000 workers in addition to the 39,600 people already employed in the UK.
Responses
“We’re incredibly proud of our role in the delivery of this vitally important, tri-nation submarine programme,” BAE Systems chief executive Charles Woodburn said.
BAE said the funding will pay for development work to 2028, with manufacturing of the vessels expected to start towards the end of this decade.
“This multi-billion-pound investment in the Aukus submarine programme will help deliver the long-term hunter-killer submarine capabilities the UK needs to maintain our strategic advantage and secure our leading place in a contested global order,” UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said as the Conservative party conference got under way in Manchester.
Curia’s Levelling Up Commission
The Levelling Up Commission intends to consider ways to implement the Government’s Levelling Up White Paper and subsequent Bill from the perspective of local and regional government. Too often the Levelling Up agenda is something being done ‘to and for’ local and regional government, the Commission intends to make sure it is done ‘with and by’ them.
Through roundtable meetings with MPs and senior leaders of local and regional government from across the UK, quantitative data analysis and regional sprints, the Commission intends to set out a series of recommendations to consider how regional inequalities can be reduced from the perspective of public services in four key areas:
Health and Social Care
Housing and Homelessness
Education, Skills and Training
Crime, Justice and Rehabilitation