“I’m confident that the work is going on, the way that the choices are being rigorously examined and slowly downselected against the timeline that we need to meet will ensure that SSN AUKUS, will arrive on time, delivering just the capabilities that we require and crewed by either a UK crew or [an] Australian crew or, very probably, a mixture of both because we will be so integrated by then that it will almost be a natural [extension] of what we’re doing,” said the First Sea Lord, Admiral Ben Key.
In conversation with Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the US Chief of Naval Operations, Key explained that while some decisions around the design of SSN-A had already been made, notably the choice of a Rolls Royce PWR reactor and AN/BYG-1 derived combat system, there are still a range of decisions that need to be made about the SSN-A platform.
Some of those decisions, he explained, will be left to the last possible decision point so that the best capabilities can be secured by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and Royal Navy (RN) whilst maintaining the planned schedule of the program.
“It’s not surprising that whilst a number of key decisions have been made around choices of combat system, choices of reactor and alike, there is still a lot of work going on in the design and maturing of the capability that we will build. Now, we can’t sit and wait years and years and years and sort of pontificate about that because there are a number of long-lead items that need to be procured, some of the reactor decisions have been absolutely confirmed and are in long-term production,” he told the audience in Perth.
His sentiment was echoed by Vice Admiral Hammond, who said that “We don’t want the best sonar in 2024 [for SSN-A],” noting the need to strike a balance between waiting for cutting edge capabilities to develop and actually maturing the core SSN-A capability.
The UK will start building the first of its SSN-A submarines later this decade, with delivery to commence in the late 2030s, while Australia will start work in the 2030s for delivery in the early 2040s.
Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, said previously that “one if not two” RN SSN-A boats will be in the water before Australia receives its first vessel.
Watch Naval News’ interview with the First Sea Lord at the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference in Perth:
