The Senate Armed Services Committee’s final fiscal yr 2024 defense authorization bill included several provisions so as to add oversight to the AUKUS agreement to assist Australia gain nuclear-powered attack submarines.
One provision of the Senate’s FY ‘24 National Defense Authorization Act bill would require the Secretary of Defense designate a senior DoD civilian official to be accountable for overseeing department activities related to AUKUS activities inside 90 days of the bill’s enactment.
The AUKUS agreement goals to have the united statesand U.K. help Australia develop the potential to field and construct nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), starting with several Virginia-class submarines purchased from the U.S. within the 2030s.
DoD can also be directed to submit an implementation plan outlining all DoD efforts related to AUKUS to congressional committees.
The bill said the plan should include timelines, major anticipated milestones for AUKUS implementation, identification of the dependencies of the milestones on defense requirements unrelated to AUKUS and solely throughout the decision making responsibility of Australia or the U.K., recommendations for adjustments to statutory and regulatory export authorities or frameworks needed to implement AUKUS, a consideration of the implications of the plan on the economic base, a plan to enhance information sharing, and a plan to leverage relevant existing cybersecurity or technology partnership or cooperation activities among the many U.S. and U.K. or U.S. and Australia.
The committee also seeks semi-annual briefings to the defense committees on all DoD activities implementing AUKUS starting 60 days after the plan is submitted after which occurring every April 1 and Oct. 1 through 2029.
Elsewhere within the bill report, the committee said it “strongly supports” AUKUS but underscored the importance of ensuring enough attention is given to the Australian submarine industrial base and their shipyards to be sure that they’ll meet the demands of maintaining SSNs.
Subsequently, the committee directed the Secretaries of Defense and the Navy to offer a report back to Congress by Jan. 30, 2024 on DoD efforts and plans “to leverage the expertise of the USA public shipyards, including lessons learned as a part of the continued Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan, to support Australian shipyard improvements and employee training.”
Individually, on July 13 chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) Bob Menendez (D-N.J) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) revealed the SFRC approved the transfer of -class SSNs to Australia for AUKUS as a part of the FY ‘24 State Department authorization bill as an amendment through the committee’s closed markup that day.
The supply specifically authorizes the transfer of two Virginia-class submarines from U.S. stocks and authorizing a 3rd latest construct boat via Foreign Military Sales (FMS), the president to simply accept funds from Australia for an AUKUS Submarine Security Account, and the export of defense services to assist Australian private sector personnel develop the needed industrial base.
The supply also would establish a State Department AUKUS senior reporting on to the Secretary of State, grants Australia and the U.K. priority status throughout the FMS process with advanced clearance to transfer AUKUS-related technologies to Australia and eases granting an exemption to business export controls for Australia and U.K., if the Secretary of State certified their export control regimes are comparable to the U.S.
“This amendment within the State Authorization Act of 2023 provides Australia with a conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability and streamlines the export of U.S. military technology, while ensuring that technology is safeguarded from adversarial espionage,” Menendez said in an announcement.
The prime contractor for Virginia-class submarines is General Dynamics’ Electric Boat [GD], which works with HII [HII] as a subcontractor to separate the work.
The Navy currently seeks to purchase two SSNs annually, although the shipyards should not yet in a position to deliver at that rate.
Last month, three House Democrats introduced the AUKUS Undersea Defense Act that may authorize the president to transfer two submarines to Australia and other associated legislative changes in to help the AUKUS agreement (Defense Day by day, June 9).
That bill is in response to the Defense Department’s three legislative proposals from May to permit the transfer of two submarines, accept Australia funds to enhance the submarine industrial base or acquire submarines, and permit private sector Australian personnel to be trained by U.S. Navy and contractor personnel (Defense Day by day, May 18).
One in all the sponsors of the AUKUS Undersea Defense Act, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), welcomed the Senate’s approval of those provisions.
“Today’s bipartisan motion on laws to authorize AUKUS is nice news and a terrific step towards making this trilateral security agreement a reality. Particularly, Senators Menendez and Kaine deserve great credit for his or her leadership crafting this measure. I hope their example will encourage similar motion within the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Courtney said in an announcement July 13.