What have the AUKUS partners spent the last year doing?

WASHINGTON — The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have spent the last year discussing in detail the capabilities that each partner of the so-called AUKUS agreement will bring to the table for a future Australian nuclear-powered attack submarine, according to the undersecretary of the U.S. Navy.

Speaking at the Defense News Conference on Wednesday, Erik Raven said he doesn’t have submarine design announcements yet, but could say the three nations are focused on “how to get there in the smartest way to make sure this partnership pays dividends well into the future.”

It’s been nearly one year since the allies signed the security pact under which the U.S. and U.K. would share nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia. The three nations agreed to an 18-month consultation period to work through what would be involved in a multinational nuclear submarine development effort.

“Some time in the future, journalists and historians are going to look back at this moment and look at how much work has been done over the past 12 months of this consultation period and ask: ‘Why can’t [the Defense Department] react as quickly to a major program and establish requirements and a process to meeting those strategic goals as quickly as we have been doing?’ ” Raven said.

“We don’t have solutions ready for prime time, but what we have been doing over the last 12 months is really spending it engaging with our partners, understanding what capabilities we all have to bring to the table, what capabilities are needed, and start aligning those against how are we going to perform to plan,” he added.

Top of mind shortly after the AUKUS announcement was choosing the class of submarine the Royal Australian Navy may use — the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class submarine, the British Royal Navy’s Astute-class submarine or something new. But the conversation later turned toward whose industrial base has the capacity to handle additional construction work .

Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, the program executive officer for strategic submarines, has closely tracked industrial base issues related to his top-priority Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, as well as what capacity remains to build and maintain the Virginia attack subs.

Although he’s not directly involved in AUKUS conversations, he said last month that, “if we are going to add additional submarine construction to our industrial base, that would be detrimental to us right now without significant investment to provide additional capacity and capability to go do that.” He added the U.K. submarine-industrial base faces similar constraints.

Despite the challenges, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday has called the arrangement “a strategic stroke of brilliance … for all three countries.”

“That puts all three countries working in lockstep with advanced capabilities to put us in a position where we’re not just interoperable, but we’re interchangeable,” he said.

Raven noted that the National Defense Strategy focuses the U.S. military on China and that AUKUS is a prime example of how to approach that. Not only does the collaboration create a new high-end platform to deter or counter China, but it also launches a discussion about basing and forward presence that could help U.S. naval forces spend more time forward in the Pacific , he explained.

Another issue gaining early attention is training. Given the length of time it takes to grow enlisted and officer leadership who understand nuclear propulsion, the U.S. and U.K. are looking at training opportunities now.

Legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress in June would establish a training program in the United States . The program would induct at least two Australian officers each year to receive training at the Navy’s nuclear propulsion school, enroll in the Submarine Officer Basic Course and then be assigned to duty on an operational U.S. submarine at sea.

During a recent commissioning ceremony for a new Astute-class sub, the U.K. announced Royal Australian Navy personnel are already participating in specialized nuclear training courses conducted by both the U.K. and U.S.

Several American leaders have noted the importance of starting this training this early, given it takes years to prepare an officer to take command of a nuclear-powered sub. In fact, it takes so long that women first began serving on American submarines in 2011, and more than a decade later, no woman has commanded a sub yet. Last month, however, a female senior enlisted sailor was selected to serve as chief of a sub.

Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a focus on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from four geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.

华盛顿——据美国海军副部长称，过去一年，美国、英国和澳大利亚一直在详细讨论所谓的“AUKUS”协议的每个伙伴将为未来澳大利亚核动力攻击潜艇带来的能力。

埃里克·雷文周三在国防新闻发布会上表示，他目前还没有潜艇设计方案公布，但他表示，这三个国家正专注于“如何以最明智的方式实现这一目标，以确保这种伙伴关系在未来很长一段时间内都能带来回报”。

自盟国签署安全协议以来已近一年，根据该协议，美国和英国将与澳大利亚共享核动力潜艇技术。三国同意进行为期18个月的磋商，以探讨多国合作开发核潜艇的具体细节。

雷文说：“将来某个时候，记者和历史学家会回顾这一刻，看看过去 12 个月的磋商期做了多少工作，然后问：‘为什么国防部不能像我们一直以来那样，迅速对一个重大项目做出反应，并迅速制定实现这些战略目标的要求和流程？’”

“我们还没有成熟的解决方案，但在过去 12 个月里，我们一直在与合作伙伴积极沟通，了解我们各自拥有的能力，以及需要哪些能力，并开始将这些能力与我们的计划执行方式进行调整，”他补充道。

在“奥克斯”号潜艇项目宣布后不久，人们最关心的问题就是澳大利亚皇家海军将使用哪种级别的潜艇——是美国海军的弗吉尼亚级潜艇、英国皇家海军的机敏级潜艇，还是某种新型潜艇。但后来，讨论的焦点转向了谁的工业基础有能力承担额外的建造工作。

战略潜艇项目执行官斯科特·帕帕诺海军少将密切关注着与他最优先的哥伦比亚级弹道导弹潜艇相关的工业基础问题，以及建造和维护弗吉尼亚级攻击潜艇的剩余能力。

尽管他并未直接参与AUKUS项目的讨论，但他上个月表示，“如果我们要在现有工业基础中增加潜艇建造项目，而又没有大量投资来提供额外的产能和能力，那么这对我们来说将是不利的。”他还补充说，英国的潜艇工业基础也面临着类似的制约因素。

尽管面临挑战，海军作战部长迈克·吉尔迪海军上将仍称该安排是“对三国而言都是一项卓越的战略举措”。

他说：“这使得这三个国家步调一致地开展工作，并拥有先进的能力，使我们不仅能够互操作，而且能够互换。”

雷文指出，《国防战略》将美军的重点放在中国，而“奥库斯”项目正是应对这一战略的绝佳范例。他解释说，此次合作不仅打造了一个全新的高端平台来威慑或对抗中国，而且还引发了关于基地建设和前沿部署的讨论，这有助于美国海军在太平洋地区部署更多前沿力量。

另一个备受关注的问题是培训。鉴于培养了解核动力推进系统的士兵和军官领导人才需要很长时间，美国和英国现在正在寻求培训机会。

美国国会6月份提出的法案将在美国设立一项培训计划。该计划每年至少招收两名澳大利亚军官，让他们在海军核动力推进学校接受培训，参加潜艇军官基础课程，然后被分配到美国现役潜艇上服役。

在最近一次新型机敏级潜艇的服役仪式上，英国宣布澳大利亚皇家海军人员已经开始参加由英国和美国共同举办的专门核动力训练课程。

多位美国领导人都指出，鉴于培养一名军官指挥核动力潜艇需要数年时间，尽早开展这项训练至关重要。事实上，训练时间之长，以至于直到2011年女性才开始在美国潜艇上服役，而十多年过去了，至今还没有女性担任过潜艇指挥官。不过，上个月，一名女性高级士官被选拔担任潜艇艇长。

梅根·埃克斯坦是《防务新闻》的海军作战记者。自2009年以来，她一直从事军事新闻报道，主要关注美国海军和海军陆战队的行动、采购项目和预算。她曾报道过四个不同地理区域的舰队，最喜欢在舰艇上进行新闻报道。梅根毕业于马里兰大学。