At an elite naval school in South Carolina, the first three Australian submariners are graduating from a nuclear training program, in preparation for the first stage of nuclear-powered subs to be delivered under the AUKUS deal.
Retired submariner and senior fellow at Washington-based think tank the Hudson Institute, Bryan Clark, described it as a "crawl, walk, run" approach.
"It just seems like that's going to be a pretty heavy lift on the part of Australia to do nuclear ship construction." The number of Australian submariners will also need to be increased, with nuclear-powered submarines carrying larger crews and requiring personnel trained to operate the reactor onboard.
Virginia-class submarines carry around 132 people, nearly three times the size of the crew onboard the Collins-class boats Australia has now. The new subs will be built in South Australia, while Western Australia's HMAS Stirling is undergoing an $8 billion expansion."They will be the two centres of excellence, if you like, for naval nuclear propulsion in Australia," Vice Admiral Hammond said.
The AUKUS deal will see the three nations work together on a new class of submarine to be delivered in the 2050s.
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