{"id":554281,"date":"2026-04-28T01:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:59:08","slug":"shortcomings-and-failures-could-sink-aukus-nuclear-submarines-plan-uk-inquiry-warns-aukus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/554281\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shortcomings and failures\u2019 could sink Aukus nuclear submarines plan, UK inquiry warns | Aukus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCracks are already beginning to show\u201d in the UK\u2019s funding for the Aukus<\/a> agreement that could derail the ambitious nuclear submarine plan, a British parliamentary inquiry has found, highlighting a threat to Australia\u2019s security.<\/p>\n

UK shipbuilding has been under-funded for decades and the country\u2019s submarine availability is \u201ccritically low\u201d, the House of Commons defence committee\u2019s report found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When the nuclear submarine HMS Anson visited Australia in February, it was Britain\u2019s only attack-class submarine at sea. It had to be rapidly recalled to the northern hemisphere \u2013 ahead of schedule \u2013 when war broke out in the Gulf, undermining confidence in UK\u2019s capacity and commitment to Aukus.<\/p>\n

The defence committee\u2019s inquiry into Aukus \u201chas revealed shortcomings and failings in the delivery of Aukus which threaten to prevent that promise becoming a reality\u201d, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the UK, political leadership \u2013 essential to secure the success of a programme of Aukus\u2019s length, cost, and complexity \u2013 has faded. We call on the prime minister to take a more visible role in promoting and driving forward Aukus to counter the political drift that could see it derailed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia is dependent upon the UK\u2019s ability to design and build an entirely new class of nuclear submarine, the SSN-Aukus. Any delay or failure on the UK side could leave Australia exposed without any sovereign long-term submarine capability.<\/p>\n

While Australia will buy between three and five Virginia-class submarines from the US<\/a> to cover the \u201ccapability gap\u201d between the retirement of its existing Collins-class diesel-electric submarines and the arrival of the SSN-Aukus, the US capacity to deliver these is also in serious jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Australia has promised the UK A$4.6bn<\/a> to uplift its submarine-building capacity and has sent nearly half a billion dollars<\/a> to its Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n

The UK has more pressing priorities \u2013 it must first build its Dreadnought class of nuclear-armed submarines \u2013 and it is structurally hampered by the fact that it has only one shipyard for building submarines, at Barrow-in-Furness. \u00a3200m has been committed to upgrade Barrow but the committee found that the timeline for improvements had \u201calready slipped\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEfforts to regenerate Barrow to attract and maintain the workforce required to deliver SSN-Aukus must be properly funded,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The report said Aukus would fail if it was seen within the UK\u2019s defence bureaucracy as just another plan \u201ccompeting for scarce resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly strong and visible political leadership from the very top of government can counter a drift into bureaucratic obscurity and ensure that Aukus receives the funding and priority that the nation\u2019s defence and security demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee chair, Labour MP Tan Dhesi, said \u201ccracks are already beginning to show\u201d in Aukus funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cannot be allowed to happen again. Even seemingly minor shortfalls and delays snowball over time, with potentially severe consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee said it was also disquieted by government secrecy over the reality of Aukus progress.<\/p>\n

In 2024 the UK\u2019s former national security adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, was appointed as the government\u2019s Aukus adviser and commissioned to review it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is deeply disappointing that more than a year after Sir Stephen Lovegrove completed his review of Aukus, the government\u2019s commitment to issue a public version of his findings has not been fulfilled,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reflects poorly on the government and is damaging to stakeholder and public confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Astute-class submarine HMS Anson docked in Perth in February, it was billed as a vital signal in maintaining the credibility of Britain\u2019s commitment to Aukus. But the vessel was rapidly withdrawn and deployed to the Middle East when war broke out in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that fulfilling this commitment has stretched the Astute fleet to \u2013 or even beyond \u2013 its limits,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n

The committee heard evidence that Britain\u2019s submarine fleet was \u201cthe smallest the UK has had in living memory\u201d and had been stretched \u201cto the limits of its capacity\u201d in sending the Anson to Australia.<\/p>\n

Dr Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said trying to fulfil Aukus meant some functions and training for the UK\u2019s fleet would have to be abandoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk of stretching our [attack-class] fleet is not just about the availability of hulls but, frankly, that we operate it to death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCracks are already beginning to show\u201d in the UK\u2019s funding for the Aukus agreement that could derail the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-554281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}