On 13 December the US Congressional Research Service published a 106-page report on the Virginia-Class Submarine Program and AUKUS Submarine Proposal.
The proposed first major initiative under the AUKUS security partnership, referred to as Pillar 1, is to rotationally deploy up to five US and UK SSNs out of HMAS Stirling, and more significantly, for Australia, with US and UK assistance, to acquire, operate, and maintain its own force of eight conventionally armed SSNs, including three to five Virginia-class SSNs that would be sold to Australia.
