First Sea Lord: The AUKUS Partnership – Admiral Sir Ben Key KCB CBE ADC

Announced in the Autumn of 2021, AUKUS is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It set out with the aim of preserving security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, drawing us closer together as nations in the process. AUKUS has two streams of effort, or pillars, the first, and headline grabbing one, being to help Australia develop a fleet of nuclear-powered, conventionally- armed, submarines and the second, a wider trilateral pursuit of advanced capabilities in areas from quantum technology to undersea capabilities to hypersonics.

In March this year, the leaders of the three AUKUS nations came together in San Diego to announce the next step of the partnership, and how the UK and USA will support Australia in becoming operators of nuclear-powered submarines. It was a moment of history. Rishi Sunak recounted a speech given in San Diego 60 years ago by President Kennedy talking about higher purpose, the maintenance of freedom, peace and security, and this was echoed in the magnitude of the AUKUS announcement.

Collectively, the AUKUS nations have agreed to develop a submarine based on the UK’s SSN-R design for the Royal Navy, but incorporating technology from all three AUKUS nations. It will be known initially as SSN-AUKUS and will be operated by both the UK and Australia from the late 2030s and 2040s respectively, replacing Astute-class for the Royal Navy and providing Australia with a step-change in capability.

This has come about through a truly collaborative effort across Government, from the Royal Navy and Defence, to Treasury, FCDO, the Cabinet Office and many others, working alongside our allies in the US and Australia. For the United Kingdom, the design and building work will sustain thousands of jobs in the UK, particularly in Barrow-in-Furness and in Derby where Rolls-Royce will construct all the SSN-AUKUS reactors, but right across the country in industry and supply chains as well.

AUKUS is not just good for UK industry and manufacturing, it will also be seminal for the Royal Navy. Through it we will replace the Astute-class with our most capable ever SSN. SSN-AUKUS will field the best technology that three nations have to offer fused into one platform. It will ensure we continue to dominate the underwater battlespace, hold operational advantage in the North Atlantic and support NATO in deterring Russia and preserving peace.

It is more significant than that though. The partnership between the three nations is perhaps deeper than any other in a generation. Nuclear design and technology information is, nationally, very closely guarded, no more so than by the United States. Only once in their history have they shared it with another nation; the United Kingdom in 1958 through the Mutual Defence Agreement – something Harold Macmillan would go on to describe as ‘the Great Prize’. Their decision therefore to now share information with Australia is of historic significance.

The stark reality is that the world is becoming a more volatile and contested place. Whether a result of the Covid pandemic, revanchist states, increasing authoritarianism or totalitarianism, and the return of state-based challenges, thought consigned to history during the land-based campaigns that dominated the first two decades of this century, is now a reality. We need only look as far as Ukraine to see a tangible and awful demonstration of this fact.

As war rages on the European continent, AUKUS will also strengthen our contribution to NATO. The majority of our force continues to operate in support of the Alliance, our Joint Expeditionary Force partners and individual and collective relationships within Europe, and the capabilities of SSN-AUKUS will bolster this further. But the interconnected nature of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific has never been more apparent.

Our national prosperity is linked to safe and open oceans around the world and the Indo-Pacific is a region that is ascendant in terms of economy and trade, but also one where we see increased challenges to the Rules Based International System and a tangible manifestation of a less safe and less stable world.

Just as our closest allies and partners have all taken steps alongside us to counter Russia’s destabilising influence in Europe and support Ukraine, the United Kingdom must demonstrate our support with a credible effort in the Indo-Pacific. We are committed to free and open use of the seas by all, and AUKUS underscores our resolve. Defence has a convening role to play, exemplified through AUKUS and the Global Combat Air Programme, and our commitment to the Indo-Pacific is resolute.

AUKUS is a generational partnership of monumental magnitude; in terms of complexity and ambition alone it is likely one of the most demanding projects we have undertaken in over 60 years. As a Service and a nation, we have never shied away from challenge, and the scale of the work that is to come should reassure us that it is the right thing to do by our people, our nation and our allies. I will not be in post to see it come to fruition, but I am immensely reassured by the commitment and dedication of all those involved that has already seen so much achieved and that has set us on the path to real success in the future.