London
based Latika M Bourke, for Australia’s The Nightly, has written an excellent article “AUKUS is
working, we can already hunt Chinese subs better, says [Australian] Defence
Industry Minister Pat Conroy”
of
February 27, 2026
who,
in part, reports:
[Australian Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy] "declared that the ambitious attempt to
co-design and build a brand new class of submarine with the British company BAE
Systems would not fail.
Earlier
this year, retired [UK Royal Navy] Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, a former
director of nuclear policy and nuclear submarine commanding officer told [London
based Latika M Bourke for] The Nightly https://thenightly.com.au/australia/high-probability-uk-element-of-aukus-will-fail-retired-british-rear-admiral-philip-mathias-claims-c-21281016
that AUKUS with the UK was destined to fail because the British did not have
enough manpower to deliver the boats.
A
top retired British Rear Admiral says the UK does not have the capacity to
deliver Australia AUKUS submarines.
Pressed
about this analysis, Mr Conroy said it did not reflect the facts as the boats
would not be built in the UK but in the shipyards in Adelaide, for which the
Government has just announced $3.9b in funding ahead of the South Australian
election.
“Our
submarine will be built at the yard in Osborne. Obviously, the reactor
components will come from Rolls-Royce, and they’ll be common parts in the
supply chain that will be either built in Australia or the UK and be shipped to
the two shipyards for consolidation, but we’re building ours in Australia,” Mr
Conroy said."
The minister said that his recent visits to BAE’s Barrow shipyards and Rolls-Royce’s nuclear production plant in Derby, England, had also demonstrated the project was on track.
“I’ve
seen our first two boats under construction right now,” he said.
“The
reactors are the things that you start on first with nuclear-reactor powered
boats. Construction has began on the boats we’re receiving in the early 2040s.”
Pete Comment
Conroy's PR deception is obvious from "“I’ve seen our first two boats under construction right now,” he said. [and] “The reactors are the things that you start on first with nuclear-reactor powered boats."
What Conroy is confusingly implying is that the notional beginning of the first two SSN AUKUS subs intended for Australia will be some advancement in the design of Rolls-Royce developed submarine reactors. Conroy also implies Australia will only be receiving these first two SSN AUKUS in the early 2040s. So this means the SSN AUKUS subs for Australia, even if notionally started, may take 20 years to build and even longer to commission,
This delay is due to: the limited production and development capacity of the UK submarine industry, centred on the need: to develop a whole new submarine reactor (called PWR3) without the materials safety risks detected in the UK's current PWR2s; commission the final Astute SSN Achilles (by 2029); and build 4 Dreadnought-class SSBNs into the 2030s and 2040s.
Reactor development has proven most difficult for the UK. To help the UK it received its first reactor from the US in 1959-1960. Then around 13 years ago the PWR3 may have benefitted from some US S9G reactor technology transfer.
The PWR3 will first go to sea (be fully tested) in HMS Dreadnought in the mid 2030s.
Then a variant of the PWR3 (if it is a very different derivative it could be renamed PWR4) will go into the first SSN AUKUS for the UK Royal Navy in the late 2030s.
The US may have transferred its best S9G reactor technology to the UK about 13 years ago. The UK then integrated the technology into the PWR3. There is a risk the UK may attempt to improve on this technology, in part because the S9G first went critical on USS Virginia as far back as early 2004. Rolls-Royce engineers may consider the technology outdated and a career opportunity to improve on. This may introduce problems into the PWR3 / PWR4 that may further delay Australia's already far into the future SSN AUKUS construction hopes.
