“Defending the Indian Ocean against rising Chinese capabilities and power is important,” he said.
The Virginia submarine program has been exempted from Pentagon budget cuts as the Trump administration focuses less on the Middle East and Europe, and more on the Indo Pacific, he said.
The Trump administration’s number three Pentagon official, Elbridge Colby, told a US Senate confirmation hearing this month the attack submarines are “absolutely essential” for making the defence of Taiwan viable, and production rates must be lifted to first meet US needs and also to fulfill its obligations to sell submarines to Australia under the AUKUS pact.
The USS Minnesota moved its home port from Hawaii to the US Pacific territory of Guam, closer to Taiwan and the only forward deployed US submarine base, in November.
A Chinese navy task group that circumnavigated Australia in February and March, holding unprecedented live fire drills off the east coast that disrupted commercial airlines, before passing Western Australia to coincide with the USS Minnesota’s port call and heading into the Indian Ocean, has highlighted China’s ambition to operate more frequently in Australia’s neighbourhood, Australian officials said.
Under AUKUS, Australia’s most expensive defence project, Australia will buy two used Virginia class submarines next decade, and build a new class of nuclear powered submarine with Britain, to replace its ageing diesel powered fleet.
In preparation, there are 115 Australians in the U.S. nuclear navy training pipeline or on Virginia submarines, plus 130 training for nuclear submarine maintenance at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, US navy officials said.
