The Defence Investment Plan commits the UK to building up to twelve next-generation SSN-AUKUS attack submarines, the same boats Australia will build, with steel to be cut on the first at Barrow next year, UK Defence Journal reports.
The plan committed the United Kingdom to building “up to 12 next-generation SSN-AUKUS” boats, nuclear-powered but conventionally armed, describing them as the same submarines Australia will also build and saying steel would be cut on the first of them next year.
The class, known in Britain as the SSN-A, will replace the Royal Navy’s seven Astute-class boats from the late 2030s and form the backbone of the country’s hunter-killer submarine force for decades to come.
The submarine sits at the heart of AUKUS, the security partnership between the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia under which the three nations are helping Australia acquire a nuclear-powered submarine fleet of its own, and the SSN-AUKUS design is based on the British successor to the Astute that has been adapted to take in American and Australian technology. Australia plans to build up to five of the same boats at Osborne in South Australia, having also arranged to buy three American Virginia-class submarines to bridge the gap until its own yard is running, which makes the design one of the most significant industrial undertakings the three countries have attempted together.
