June 24, 2022

Training Aus Nuclear Submariners: US Legislation in House

 Justin Katz at US website Breaking Defense wrote an excellent June 23, 2022 article 

indicating the US Congress is laying early legislative groundwork for an Australian SSN capability.

Meanwhile the UK is silent on any plans to magically dream up 2 Astutes, with no longer built PWR2s, for the RAN.

Snippets from Justin Katz’ article include:

“WASHINGTON: As initial trilateral discussions continue between the AUKUS signatories, [US Congress House of Representatives] lawmakers have moved to establish a “joint training pipeline” for submarine officers between the US and Royal Australian navies.

The legislation, dubbed the Australia-U.S. Submarine Officer Pipeline Act, was introduced last week by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., and included as an amendment to this year’s defense policy bill, which was favorably voted out of the House Armed Services Committee early this morning.

“The AUKUS alliance is the most important security partnership that America has entered into in decades, and at its core is the creation of an Australian fleet of nuclear-powered submarines — the same world-beating technology operated by our own US Navy, vital to keeping up with today’s challenges in the vast expanse of the Indo-Pacific,” Courtney said of the bill after the committee concluded its marathon mark up of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

Courtney’s submariner legislation would allow for two Royal Australian Navy submariners being selected to come to the US each year for training at the US Navy’s sub school, enroll in the Submarine Officer Basic Course and be assigned to duty on an operational US sub at sea.

Separately, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro late last week announced [USN] Rear Adm. Dave Goggins was tapped to become a “special assistant” supporting the AUKUS agreement. Goggins, who is currently the Program Executive Officer for Attack Submarines, will be relieved by Rear Adm. Jonathon Rucker.

… When officials from Washington, London and Sydney announced the agreement in September 2021, they said the first step would be an 18-month consultation and planning period..."

SEE THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.

Pete Comment

This follows the November-December 2021 Exchange of Naval Nuclear Propulsion Information Agreement (ENNPIA). 

If this June 2022 training legislation gets through in a timely and untroubled manner this will be another early test whether the AUKUS SSN Program can gain momentum in US-Australian relations. 

If the legislation has not cleared the House and Senate before the possible complication of the US November 8, 2022, "Midterm" Elections then prospects may not be so rosy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pete

FYI I just saw this story, which IMO is excellent news for AUKUS and the prospect of Australia building SSNs.

The USN has appointed Rear Adm David Goggins as its leader of US efforts under AUKUS,including submarine construction. Goggins is both an ex-submariner and a qualified nuclear engineer with a MEng from MIT. He led the Virginia Class program while they were improving production and reducing costs through modular construction.
https://news.usni.org/2022/06/22/navy-submarine-peo-goggins-to-lead-american-aukus-effort-says-secnav

Australian Defence badly needs to get people like this - experienced engineers with skills in project management - to run defence procurement contracts, rather than ex-military officers who know how to command a ship but not how to build one.

Whichever design is chosen, if we can get the right technical leadership in place it will help immensely. A lot of time and money can be saved if we avoid mistakes.

I am reminded of an earlier post I made about the desirability of hiring an experienced SSN builder like Electric Boat to run the program for Defence. Will I get my wish?

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous [at Jun 28, 2022, 5:28:00 PM]

Thanks for the Admiral David Goggins information. Here's more data on his career and achievements https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/Biographies/Article-View/Article/2548962/rear-admiral-david-goggins/

Goggins is superbly qualified to assist Australia. This seems much more than the UK has offered, so far.

But, perhaps like the Astute program, (which gained much from GD-EB managerial assistance and experience * ) the AUKUS SSN program will heavily rely on UK industry while the US will provide expert review and guidance by leaders with the calibre of Admiral Goggins.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astute-class_submarine#Construction,_cost_overruns_and_delays

Hopefully the RAN's own Admiral Richards https://www.navy.gov.au/biography/rear-admiral-katherine-richards is involved with the Taskforce.

Regards Pete