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“What we do is we work things through in an orderly way,” he said.
The government was delighted by Trump’s enthusiastic comments about AUKUS and believed it would be able to work with any recommendations made by the Colby review.
Former senior defence official Mike Pezzullo said he believed bedding down the US Navy’s presence in Western Australia was one of the most likely ambiguities that Phelan had in mind.
“Our government tends to emphasise that Force West is about building up our own submarine capability, but when the Americans talk about it, they are explicit that it’s about power projection,” said Pezzullo, a former head of the Home Affairs Department who authored the 2009 defence white paper.
“They have long coveted the idea of an operating location like this and they are not going to want to give it up.”
Pezzullo said the US could also be seeking to establish more certainty about Australia’s operational role in possible conflict scenarios and may consider partnering with Australia and the UK on a trilateral next-generation submarine.
Plans to develop a new nuclear-powered submarine known as SSN-AUKUS, scheduled to enter service in the late 2030s, are so far limited to the UK and Australia.
China has long been unhappy with the AUKUS arrangement. A spokesman for its foreign ministry, Guo Jiakun, said on Tuesday that: “We oppose bloc confrontation and anything that increases the risk of nuclear proliferation and exacerbates arms race.”
The Australian Submarine Agency’s fact sheet on Submarine Rotational Force West emphasises that it will not be a military base for US or UK navies.
“Australia has a longstanding bipartisan policy of no foreign bases on Australian soil,” the agency states. “Activities under SRF-West are consistent with this policy.”
The agency states that the project will “help Australia build the necessary operational capabilities and skills to be ‘sovereign ready’ so we can safely and securely own, operate, maintain and regulate a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines from the early 2030s”.
While such language could create the impression the project is for the short term, naval expert Jennifer Parker said this was extremely unlikely.
“The US sees SRF-W as one of the most significant benefits of AUKUS,” said Parker, an adjunct fellow in naval studies at UNSW.
“It’s hard to see them viewing it as a short-term arrangement – they will want to be there for the long term.”
The Greens have opposed the AUKUS plan, including Submarine Rotational Force West, arguing the pact is “about projecting force in the South China Sea and tying us to the war-making ambitions of the US and UK” rather than defending Australia.
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