American officials have sought urgent assurances from the Albanese Government over the planned rotation of US nuclear-powered submarines out of Western Australia after a senior minister suggested the arrangement would be limited to five years.<\/p>\n
During an interview from Washington, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the AUKUS program known as Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West), and is scheduled to begin next year, would end in 2032.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a time-limited rotation,\u201d Mr Conroy told the ABC on Wednesday evening, in comments which The Nightly has been told sparked a flurry of conversations between US and Australian defence officials.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a five-year commitment beginning in 2027… That\u2019s the arrangement that we\u2019ve put in place, with the plan being that as we acquire our own nuclear-powered submarines, they would move into HMAS Stirling and the rotational presence would come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the AUKUS optimal pathway, US and British submarines will first deploy to WA\u2019s HMAS Stirling, before Australia begins to receive second-hand Virginia-class boats in the early 2030s.<\/p>\n Mr Conroy who is Washington for talks with senior Department of War officials also hit back at AUKUS critics who suggested the program amounted to allowing a de facto US military base at HMAS Stirling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rotation each year is time-limited. That\u2019s why they\u2019re not based there; they\u2019re only in HMAS Stirling for a limited amount of time each year.\u201d<\/p>\n When pressed on how much time each year that would be, the Defence Industry Minister said he could not disclose the answer.<\/p>\n \u201cThat goes to the operational employment that the United States uses for those submarines, but they won\u2019t be there all year long,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Several figures linked to the AUKUS program have told The Nightly that the overnight comments generated some concern and confusion inside the Pentagon with officials seeking urgent clarification from their Australian counterparts.<\/p>\n Shadow defence minister James Paterson said it was bizarre that the Defence Industry Minister had used a television interview to \u201ceffectively serve an eviction notice to the US Navy from HMAS Stirling before they have even arrived\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThat he did so while he was in the United States is even worse,\u201d Senator Paterson argued.<\/p>\n Western Australian Premier Roger Cook downplayed the confusion, saying the SRF-West program in his state was always designed to give Australian submariners experience on nuclear-powered boats before they operated their own.<\/p>\n \u201cSo yes, it\u2019s a time-limited program because by 2032, those submariners will be starting to transition towards our Australian sovereign fleet,\u201d Mr Cook told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it\u2019s an important part of making sure that we\u2019ve got the submariners that have the experience and the expertise to work on a nuclear sub.\u201d<\/p>\n During a series of subsequent interviews Mr Conroy also stressed that the deployment of US submarines in WA could easily be renewed or expanded, but that it might not be exactly as constructed under SRF-West.<\/p>\n Speaking from Washington, Mr Conroy stressed that the US would maintain a permanent submarine presence at HMAS Stirling into the future under arrangements that may need to be negotiated by future governments.<\/p>\n According to diagrams from the Australian Submarine Agency which oversees the massive AUKUS program, SRF-West is scheduled to taper off in the 2030s at the same time the US begins transferring Virginia-class submarines to the Royal Australian Navy.<\/p>\n The Opposition says Mr Conroy\u2019s attempts to clean up the confusion still left many unanswered questions and demanded the defence minister intervene to give clarity to Australia\u2019s closest ally.<\/p>\n \u201cMinister Conroy\u2019s comments require urgent clarification for the sake of the alliance and the deterrence posture we need for our own security,\u201d Senator Paterson said.<\/p>\n \u201cPat Conroy\u2019s boss, (Defence Minister) Richard Marles, must make clear today: are US submarines welcome in WA beyond 2032 or not?\u201d.<\/p>\n The Defence Minister\u2019s office has not responded to requests for comment from The Nightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American officials have sought urgent assurances from the Albanese Government over the planned rotation of US nuclear-powered submarines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,84,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-834224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}