Lawmakers exhort Trump: Keep security pact with Australia and UK alive

U.S. lawmakers from both parties are urging the Trump administration to maintain a three-way security partnership designed to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines — a plea that comes as the Pentagon reviews the agreement and considers the questions it has raised about the American industrial infrastructure’s shipbuilding capabilities.

Two weeks ago, the Defense Department announced it would review AUKUS, the 4-year-old pact signed by the Biden administration with Australia and the United Kingdom. The announcement means the Republican administration is looking closely at a partnership that many believe is critical to the U.S. strategy to push back China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific. The review is expected to be completed in the fall.

“AUKUS is essential to strengthening deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and advancing the undersea capabilities that will be central to ensuring peace and stability,” Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan and Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois wrote in a July 22 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Moolenaar chairs the House panel on China and Krishnamoorthi is its top Democrat.

The review comes as the Trump administration works to rebalance its global security concerns while struggling with a hollowed-out industrial base that has hamstrung U.S. capabilities to build enough warships. The review is being led by Elbridge Colby , the No. 3 Pentagon official, who has expressed skepticism about the partnership.

“If we can produce the attack submarines in sufficient number and sufficient speed, then great. But if we can’t, that becomes a very difficult problem,” Colby said during his confirmation hearing in March . “This is getting back to restoring our defense industrial capacity so that we don’t have to face these awful choices but rather can be in a position where we can produce not only for ourselves, but for our allies.”

US cannot build enough ships

As part of the $269 billion AUKUS partnership, the United States will sell three to five Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, with the first delivery scheduled as soon as 2032. The U.S. and the U.K. would help Australia design and build another three to five attack submarines to form an eight-boat force for Australia.

A March report by the Congressional Research Service warned that the lack of U.S. shipbuilding capacities, including workforce shortage and insufficient supply chains, is jeopardizing the much-celebrated partnership. If the U.S. should sell the vessels to Australia, the U.S. Navy would have a shortage of attack submarines for two decades, the report said.

The Navy has been ordering two boats per year in the last decade, but U.S. shipyards have been only producing 1.2 Virginia-class subs a year since 2022, the report said.

“The delivery pace is not where it needs to be” to make good on the first pillar of AUKUS, Admiral Daryl Caudle, nominee for the Chief of Naval Operations, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month.

A March report by the Congressional Research Service warned that the lack of U.S. shipbuilding capacities is jeopardizing AUKUS. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, is shown here in 2021. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

Australia has invested $1 billion in the U.S. submarine industrial base, with another $1 billion to be paid before the end of this year. It has agreed to contribute a total of $3 billion to uplift the U.S. submarine base, and it has sent both industry personnel to train at U.S. shipyards and naval personnel for submarine training in the United States.

“Australia was clear that we would make a proportionate contribution to the United States industrial base,” an Australian defense spokesperson said in July. “Australia’s contribution is about accelerating U.S. production rates and maintenance to enable the delivery of Australia’s future Virginia-class submarines.”

The three nations have also jointly tested communication capabilities with underwater autonomous systems, Australia’s defense ministry said on July 23. Per the partnership, the countries will co-develop other advanced technologies, from undersea to hypersonic capabilities.

At the recent Aspen Security Forum, Kevin Rudd, the Australian ambassador to the United States, said his country is committed to increasing defense spending to support its first nuclear-powered sub program, which would also provide “massively expensive full maintenance repair facilities” for the U.S. Indo-Pacific fleet based in Western Australia.

Rudd expressed confidence that the two governments “will work our way through this stuff.”

AUKUS called ‘crucial to American deterrence’

Bruce Jones, senior fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy and Technology, told The Associated Press that the partnership, by positioning subs in Western Australia, is helping arm the undersea space that is “really crucial to American deterrence and defense options in the Western Pacific.”

“The right answer is not to be content with the current pace of submarine building. It’s to increase the pace,” Jones said.

Jennifer Parker, who has served more than 20 years with the Royal Australian Navy and founded Barrier Strategic Advisory, said it should not be a zero-sum game. “You might sell one submarine to Australia, so you have one less submarine on paper. But in terms of the access, you have the theater of choice from operating from Australia, from being able to maintain your submarines from Australia,” Parker said. “This is not a deal that just benefits Australia.”

Defense policy is one of the few areas where Republican lawmakers have pushed back against the Trump administration, but their resolve is being tested with the Pentagon’s review of AUKUS. So far, they have joined their Democratic colleagues in voicing support for the partnership.

They said the U.S. submarine industry is rebounding with congressional appropriations totaling $10 billion since 2018 to ensure the U.S. will have enough ships to allow for sales to Australia.

Sen. Tim Kaine , D-Va., told the AP that support for AUKUS is strong and bipartisan, “certainly on the Armed Services Committee.”

“There is a little bit of mystification about the analysis done at the Pentagon,” Kaine said, adding that “maybe [what] the analysis will say is: We believe this is a good thing.”

美国两党议员敦促特朗普政府维持旨在向澳大利亚提供核动力潜艇的三方安全伙伴关系——与此同时，五角大楼正在审查该协议，并考虑其对美国工业基础设施造船能力提出的问题。

两周前，美国国防部宣布将对“奥库斯”（AUKUS）合作机制进行审查。该机制是拜登政府与澳大利亚和英国签署的，已有四年历史。此举意味着共和党政府正在密切关注这一伙伴关系，许多人认为该伙伴关系对美国遏制中国在印太地区的影响力至关重要。审查预计将于秋季完成。

“AUKUS水下航行器对于加强印太地区的威慑力以及提升水下作战能力至关重要，而这对于确保和平与稳定至关重要，”密歇根州共和党众议员约翰·穆勒纳尔和伊利诺伊州民主党众议员拉贾·克里希纳穆尔蒂在7月22日致国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯的信中写道。穆勒纳尔是众议院中国问题委员会主席，克里希纳穆尔蒂是该委员会的首席民主党成员。

此次评估正值特朗普政府努力重新平衡其全球安全考量之际，与此同时，美国工业基础的空心化严重削弱了其建造足够军舰的能力。评估由五角大楼排名第三的官员埃尔布里奇·科尔比领导，他曾对这种伙伴关系表示怀疑。

科尔比在三月份的确认听证会上说：“如果我们能够以足够的数量和速度生产出足够的攻击型潜艇，那当然很好。但如果做不到，那将是一个非常棘手的问题。这关乎恢复我们的国防工业能力，这样我们就不必面对这些艰难的选择，而是能够不仅为自己生产，也为我们的盟友生产。”

美国造不出足够的舰船。

作为价值 2690 亿美元的 AUKUS 合作项目的一部分，美国将向澳大利亚出售三到五艘弗吉尼亚级核动力潜艇，首艘潜艇最早将于 2032 年交付。美国和英国还将帮助澳大利亚设计和建造另外三到五艘攻击型潜艇，使澳大利亚的潜艇部队达到八艘。

美国国会研究服务处3月份发布的一份报告警告称，美国造船能力不足，包括劳动力短缺和供应链不畅，正在危及备受赞誉的美澳伙伴关系。报告指出，如果美国向澳大利亚出售这些舰艇，美国海军未来20年将面临攻击型潜艇短缺的问题。

报告称，过去十年里，美国海军每年订购两艘潜艇，但自 2022 年以来，美国造船厂每年仅生产 1.2 艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇。

海军作战部长提名人达里尔·考德尔海军上将上个月在参议院军事委员会作证时表示，“交付速度还没有达到应有的水平”，无法实现 AUKUS 计划的第一支柱。

美国国会研究服务处3月份的一份报告警告称，美国造船能力的不足正在危及奥克斯计划。图为2021年位于缅因州基特里的朴茨茅斯海军造船厂。（罗伯特·F·布卡蒂/美联社）

澳大利亚已向美国潜艇工业基地投资10亿美元，另有10亿美元将于今年年底前支付。澳大利亚已同意总共出资30亿美元用于提升美国潜艇基地的水平，并已派遣工业人员赴美国造船厂接受培训，以及派遣海军人员赴美国接受潜艇训练。

澳大利亚国防部发言人7月份表示：“澳大利亚已明确表示，我们将对美国工业基础做出相应的贡献。澳大利亚的贡献在于加快美国的生产和维护速度，以确保澳大利亚未来弗吉尼亚级潜艇的交付。”

澳大利亚国防部7月23日表示，这三个国家还联合测试了水下自主系统的通信能力。根据合作协议，这些国家将共同开发其他先进技术，从水下技术到高超音速技术。

在最近举行的阿斯彭安全论坛上，澳大利亚驻美国大使陆克文表示，澳大利亚致力于增加国防开支，以支持其首个核动力潜艇项目，该项目还将为驻扎在西澳大利亚的美国印太舰队提供“极其昂贵的全面维护修理设施”。

陆克文表示相信两国政府“会共同解决这些问题”。

AUKUS 被誉为“对美国威慑至关重要”

斯特罗布·塔尔博特安全、战略和技术中心高级研究员布鲁斯·琼斯告诉美联社，通过在西澳大利亚部署潜艇，该伙伴关系正在帮助武装水下空间，而水下空间“对美国在西太平洋的威慑和防御选择至关重要”。

琼斯说：“正确的做法不是满足于目前的潜艇建造速度，而是加快速度。”

在澳大利亚皇家海军服役超过20年并创立了Barrier战略咨询公司的詹妮弗·帕克表示，这不应该是一场零和博弈。“你可能向澳大利亚出售一艘潜艇，所以从账面上看，你的潜艇数量就少了一艘。但就行动自由而言，你可以选择在澳大利亚作战，也可以在澳大利亚维护你的潜艇，”帕克说。“这笔交易并非只对澳大利亚有利。”

国防政策是共和党议员少数几个反对特朗普政府的领域之一，但随着五角大楼对奥库斯（AUKUS）项目的审查，他们的决心正受到考验。到目前为止，他们与民主党同僚一道，公开表示支持这项合作。

他们表示，自 2018 年以来，美国国会已拨款 100 亿美元，以确保美国拥有足够的舰艇，从而能够向澳大利亚出售潜艇，美国潜艇行业正在复苏。

弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员蒂姆·凯恩告诉美联社，AUKUS 的支持力度很大，而且是两党共同支持的，“尤其是在军事委员会”。

凯恩说：“五角大楼所做的分析有点令人费解”，并补充说，“也许分析结果会是：我们认为这是一件好事。”