British industry is calling for a clear and unified show of support for the AUKUS alliance after months of doubts about the critical defence project, warning of skills shortages and spending delays that will slow the delivery of a new submarine fleet, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Australia has promised to spend almost $5 billion on British industry to develop the nuclear power plants for the new fleet, but is likely to spend more when construction begins on new vessels over the decade ahead.
“The problem we have is this lack of demand signals,” Make UK Defence director-general Andrew Kinniburgh said.
“You can create as conducive an environment as you like, but if there are no demand signals, industry is not going to start investing.
“So I think there needs to be a clarity from all three governments, really, in terms of identifying either existing programs or new projects for AUKUS.”
The full report is here.
