US Navy Bares 2024 Activities for Australia’s Nuclear Sub Acquisition Under AUKUS

Erik Raven, U.S. Department of the Navy undersecretary, said 30 Royal Australian Navy sailors will join the U.S. Navy’s first submarine maintenance deployment in Australia in the summer of 2024, as part of the RAN’s nuclear submarine acquisition plan under the trilateral AUKUS alliance, which also includes the United Kingdom. 

The U.S. Navy team will use the Emory S. Land-class submarine tender to help develop a nuclear-powered attack submarine maintenance capability at the team’s HMAS Stirling naval base work site in Western Australia, Raven disclosed.

According to Raven, a speaker at a past Potomac Officers Club event, nuclear submarine maintenance training for Australian naval officers, sailors and civilian navy employees is underway at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Barrow-in-Furness, England, the Navy Times reported Saturday.

In 2024, the first Australian sailors will be deployed on U.S. submarines, and AUKUS training systems and simulators will also be purchased for Australia’s Stirling naval base. Raven added.

The Navy undersecretary had noted in 2023 that one of the AUKUS operational pathways is for U.S. and UK submarines to operate out of Australia’s Stirling base.