Australia to spend billions of dollars on nuclear submarines

Australia announced on Sunday that it will spend 3.9 billion Australian dollars (2.76 billion US dollars) on building shipyards to help deliver nuclear submarines under the AUKUS trilateral defense pact with the US and the UK.

AUKUS, announced in 2021, is Australia's largest defense investment in history and will see Virginia-class submarines under US command deployed to Australia from 2027, several Virginia-class submarines will be sold to Australia from 2030, and the UK and Australia will build a new class of AUKUS nuclear submarines.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the A$3.9 billion as a down payment on the delivery of a new shipyard in Osborne, a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia.

"The investment in the Osborne submarine shipyard is key to the delivery of Australia's conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines," Albanese explained.

According to official estimates, the total cost of construction will reach $30 billion "over the coming decades," he added.

(reuters)