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The administration of President Donald Trump has initiated a formal review of the AUKUS defence agreement, an alliance forged by former President Joe Biden with Australia and the United Kingdom to equip Australia with conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines.
Led by the Pentagon, the review could unsettle Australia which views the submarine deal as vital amid rising concerns over China’s growing military presence in the region.
The move may also complicate Britain’s defence strategy, as AUKUS plays a key role in its planned submarine fleet expansion.
”We are reviewing AUKUS as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous administration is aligned with the President’s America First agenda,” the official said of the review, which was first reported by Financial Times.
”Any changes to the administration’s approach for AUKUS will be communicated through official channels, when appropriate.”
AUKUS, formed in 2021 to address shared worries about China’s growing power, is designed to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines and other advanced weapons such as hypersonic missiles.
Vocal skeptics of the AUKUS deal among Trump’s senior policy officials include Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy advisor.
In a 2024 talk with Britain’s Policy Exchange think-tank, Colby cautioned that U.S. military submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and that U.S. industry could not produce enough of them to meet American demand.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThey would also be central to U.S. military strategy in any confrontation with China centered in the First Island Chain, an area that runs from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China’s coastal seas.
”My concern is why are we giving away this crown jewel asset when we most need it,” Colby said.
The Australian and UK embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The US National Security Council also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Only six nations currently operate nuclear-powered submarines: the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France, and India. Under the AUKUS pact, Australia is set to join that exclusive group by 2032, when it is expected to receive Virginia-class submarines from the U.S.
Ahead of that, the U.S. and UK will begin rotational deployments of their submarines at an Australian naval base in Western Australia, starting in 2027.
Subsequently, Australia and Britain—supported by the United States—will jointly design and construct a new class of nuclear-powered submarines. The first of these is slated for delivery to the UK in the late 2030s and to Australia in the early 2040s.
While Australia has not confirmed whether its submarines would participate in a potential US-China conflict, experts point to its longstanding military ties with Washington, including troop deployments to the Vietnam War, as a sign of likely alignment.
”I think we can make a decent bet that Australia would be there with us in the event of a conflict,” Colby said last year.
Speaking in Congress on Tuesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said ”we’re having honest conversations with our allies.”
On Australia, Hegseth said: ”We want to make sure those capabilities are part of how they use them with their submarines but also how they integrate with us as allies.”
With inputs from agencies