Australia expects to receive at least three of the submarines in the 2030s.<\/p>\n
But the sales will only go ahead if the US can build enough of the boats for its own fleet. That requires a significant improvement in the pace of production, the US Navy admits.<\/p>\n
“Clearly, there are entities or bureaucrats in the [Trump] administration that are not all in on this goal,” congressman Joe Courtney, who founded the bipartisan AUKUS Working Group, said.<\/p>\n
“The Virginia-class \u2026 multi-year contracts continue to be delayed, despite all consensus that procurement stability will strengthen investment in facilities and workforce.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a4b26a3ee88559afb819b1bce57cdc56.jpeg\")
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Joe Courtney says there are clearly parts of the Trump administration not committed to upping the pace of production. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan)<\/p>\n
Congress gave the Pentagon authorisation to award the contract in December, 2023 \u2014 meaning it has remained unsigned for about 28 months.<\/p>\n
The previous comparable contract was awarded within 20 months, Mr Courtney told the ABC.<\/p>\n
‘Particularly worrisome’ construction blow-outs<\/p>\n
Separate to the contract issue, new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) research adds to existing doubts about the navy’s prospects of picking up the pace of construction.<\/p>\n
The US’s military industrial base has been struggling with production that has lagged behind targets for years.<\/p>\n
But CBO naval analyst Eric Labs, in written testimony<\/a> for Congress, said the problem appeared to be worsening.<\/p>\n “What makes the delays \u2026 particularly worrisome is that they are long-established shipbuilding programs that previously delivered ships in much shorter timelines,” he wrote.<\/p>\n Military submarines that took 5\u20136 years to build in the early 2000s were now taking an average of 9\u201310 years.<\/p>\n “In addition, the delays increased slightly from 2025 to 2026, despite substantial investments to reduce them.”<\/p>\n Some of those investments have more recently come from the Australian government, which is contributing more than $4 billion to help the US fast-track the submarines’ construction.<\/p>\n Mr Labs’s research says building extra submarines for the AUKUS deal will add “another challenge to an already stressed production line”.<\/p>\n Pentagon ‘aware of the urgency’ to award contract<\/p>\n Despite the production backlogs, manufacturers that produced submarine parts were ready to get started as soon as the outstanding contract was awarded, Mr Courtney said.<\/p>\n Australia ready for AUKUS subs, US commander says<\/a><\/p>\n The US’s Indo-Pacific commander praises work to upgrade Australia’s AUKUS base, but says he needs more naval firepower in the region as China rapidly expands its military.<\/p>\n In a letter<\/a> to the Pentagon last month, he warned the “long-delayed execution” of the contract was “creating uncertainty for the suppliers and shipbuilders who depend on long-lead planning to produce and acquire the components and modules for submarine construction”.<\/p>\n Navy assistant secretary Joe Potter said the contract was in the “final stages” of being awarded. He said it had become more complex after being coupled with a separate contract to build larger Columbia-class submarines.<\/p>\n “So there’s been a little bit of a longer-term negotiation as the complexity of that negotiation has increased,” he told a congressional hearing on Wednesday, local time.<\/p>\n “But there’s no question it’s important. There’s no question it’s a priority for this administration.”<\/p>\n Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey told Congress on March 4: “I am aware that we are very close and I am also aware of the urgency to get that done.<\/p>\n “So we’re working in partnership with the navy to continue to drive that to conclusion.”<\/p>\n Mr Courtney, a Democrat who co-chairs Congress’s Friends of Australia Caucus, represents a shipbuilding area of Connecticut that stands to benefit from the contract.<\/p>\n Congress warned of ‘potential for further deterioration’ in build rate<\/p>\n Any additional delays in the shipbuilding program risk exacerbating existing fears that the US will not be able to deliver the submarines as intended under AUKUS<\/a>.<\/p>\n In order to provide the submarines to Australia, the US Navy is aiming to eventually increase the pace of production to 2.33 submarines per year.<\/p>\n But the most recent official data showed the production rate in 2024 was 1.15 boats per year. The goal for that year was a rate of 1.5 boats.<\/p>\n It was a slight fall from 2023, when the production rate was 1.2 boats.<\/p>\n