Australia losing interest in acquiring British nuclear submarines, says ex-defence minister

Australia's former defence minister Peter Dutton said that the nation is losing interest in purchasing British nuclear submarines and is thinking about buying the ones made in America instead.

Dutton, who was the country's defence minister until 10 months ago and led the government's decision of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, reportedly said that he has been informed about various hurdles in purchasing a British submarine.

The problems include the UK's weak production capacity and compatibility issues of a British-designed submarine with those operated by the United States, which is Australia’s closest defence ally.

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As per the news report, the latest operational nuclear-powered submarine of the United States, Virginia-class is the rival of the UK.

The comments of Dutton came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gears up to travel to Washington this month. He, along with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden, is likely to talk about the “optimal pathway” for Australia to replace its ageing fleet of diesel-electric submarines, which have been built locally.

As per the Aukus defence pact which was signed by Australia with the UK and the US in late 2021, eight nuclear-powered submarines, of either British or US design or a combination of the two, will be acquired by Australia.

The vessels will cost around $AUD100 billion (£56 billion).

However, the comment made by Dutton did not go down well with Australia’s Defence Minister Pat Conroy who accused the former defence minister of undermining the new submarine programme's confidence and said that the classified information he had received as a defence minister was misused by him.

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“He (Dutton) is either being mischievous or he’s not privy to the latest information. I have just come back from Barrow in the United Kingdom where I have got a full briefing on what the UK is doing. I think those comments from Peter Dutton are incredibly irresponsible. This was a man who received classified briefings up until May 21 on this programme," Conroy said.

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