Press conference, HMAS Stirling

SUBJECTS: AUKUS Submarine Tendered Maintenance Period, AUKUS

MEMBER FOR BRAND AND MINISTER FOR RESOURCES MADELEINE KING: Thanks, Uncle Nick, for that generous welcome to Meeandip, Garden Island and HMAS Stirling. My name is Madeleine King, and as the Federal Labor member for Brand representing the communities of Kwinana and Rockingham, it really is a very great privilege and honour to welcome our friends from the US Navy and the US Government and also from the Royal Navy and the UK Government here today. And I welcome them and look forward to many future visits from them, and all in the part of the great initiative that we are venturing on together in the AUKUS commitment. 

HMAS Stirling, where we are today, was first commissioned in 1978. So as someone who's grown up around here, just around the corner in Shoalwater Bay and continues to live here, I have seen, and as many of my friends in the community have seen, this little island, this little base transform and grow over the decades as the geopolitical situation that Australia's found itself in changes. 

And we are here again right now at the crux of another change and great transformation of HMAS Stirling, and it is really a great privilege to represent this community, the communities of Rockingham and Kwinana at this time, as HMAS Stirling at Garden Island in Rockingham will become the heart of the Royal Australian Navy's activities, and AUKUS, but also of course our friends in the Royal Navy and the US Navy. 

So obviously I could tell you all about Rockingham and Kwinana for a very long time, it's a very important part of this country, much under‑rated for many years, but that will no longer be the case as we have visitors from the US and the UK for many years to come, and the benefits to the local community in terms of technical skills that we'll be able to acquire and participation in this great AUKUS venture is something I'm really proud of and excited to be a part of. 

With that, I'll hand over to my friend and colleague, the member for Burt and Minister Matt Keogh. 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL MATT KEOGH: Well, thank you Madeleine, thanks Uncle Nick, and I want to acknowledge being here not just with Madeleine but also our State Defence Industry Minister, Paul Papalia, of course representatives from the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Submarine Agency, but importantly also our friends and partners from the United States and the United Kingdom. 

We are here for what is really a significant and historical milestone, the commencement of submarine tendered maintenance program for the first time here in Australia, here at HMAS Stirling in Perth in Western Australia. 

This is a unique opportunity on a journey to nuclear stewardship for Australia as part of the AUKUS program, and it's going to see 30 odd Australian personnel from our Royal Australian Navy that have spent time embedded with the United States since January performing maintenance operations right here in Australia. 

And of course it builds on a long history going back to the Second World War of Australia supporting its partners' submarines here in Western Australia. 

But it's also an opportunity for us to welcome our friends. The sailors on board the USS Hawaii, and the USS Emory S. Land, we welcome with open arms here to Western Australia, but also we get to welcome back one of our own Naval officers, who has not just trained in the United States but has now been a member of the crew on the USS Hawaii as well, being a critical part of our learning journey as we progress towards operating our own nuclear propelled submarines. 

And what we are seeing over the coming weeks, we'll see the 30 embedded Australian, Royal Australian Navy personnel undertaking side by side with their American counterparts maintenance on a Virginia-class submarine. Something that they've been learning and doing over the last few months in Guam, but critically also, we'll see personnel from the Australian Submarine Corporation, our sovereign sustainment partner for our AUKUS program, providing support services to that maintenance work as well. 

And right now we have personnel from Australian Submarine Corporation that have also been undertaking training and work over in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. And this is part of the interaction that we are seeing between all of our nations in growing our capability towards nuclear stewardship. 

We've seen that matched by having American personnel based here at HMAS Stirling involved in the maintenance program for our Collins class submarines and sharing the learning with each other around how we build our capability here in Australia, as we prepare to be hosting the rotational forces, firstly from the United States and then from the United Kingdom, as we progress towards being able to operate our own Virginia-class submarines and then towards the AUKUS class of submarines as well. 

And it's great to have the personnel here as well from the United Kingdom that are observing these maintenance operations so that they can see how the UK can be part of this program as we increase our stewardship, increase our training of our personnel and build that capability for the first time outside of a purely American operation. 

This is a unique opportunity because it brings our people together. It's not just about building a capability, it's about also building those vital people to people links, and it demonstrates that this isn't something that just exists at a military to military level, it's a key demonstration of how we continue to grow a stronger and stronger partnership through the AUKUS arrangement between Australia and the United Kingdom as we understand the nature of the environment that we operate in here across the Indo-Pacific for Australia. 

So it's wonderful to have the crew from these great American vessels here in Western Australia. It's excellent that we have Australians embedded in that program, but also that we have Americans and the UK here at the moment as well as part of that program of building our capability for our people as we head towards a degree of nuclear sustainment, working with our partners, as we become nuclear stewards as we head to continue to progress the AUKUS program with the United States and the United Kingdom. 

I'm now going to let Paul Papalia say a few words about the great impact that this is also going to have in benefitting the industrial development, the jobs opportunity here in Western Australia. Paul. 

WA MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAUL PAPALIA: Thanks, Matt. They're all worried about what I'm going so say... Look, we in Western Australia say WA is where AUKUS gets real, and it is real right now. This is an extraordinary moment, you've heard about the unprecedented nature of what's going on, but it is the leading edge of a great national endeavour to get nuclear submarines for Australia. 

It's an extraordinary moment in time. For the first time our people are working with our allies to maintain a nuclear submarine on Australian soil, an extraordinary event. 

We are extremely proud and happy to host our American friends. As a former diver, I kind of view the Virginia-class as the biggest diver delivery vessel in the world, but beyond that it is undeniably the apex predator of the ocean, and the fact that we are moving towards acquiring that capability for our nation is an incredibly good thing. It gives us the power of deterrence that the likes of which we have never had. It is a step change in capability, and the fact that Western Australia is going to be the home of these submarines, is going to be the base for our submarines in the future and the place where maintenance of those extremely high-tech capability submarines is a good thing, a wonderful thing for Western Australians. 

An extraordinary opportunity for young people to consider a future in a dynamic, extremely cutting-edge sector for the rest of their lives. If you want to go into a career path, you can contemplate it now and it will be there for as long as you want to keep working on it. Wonderful moment for the nation, but particularly a wonderful moment for Western Australia. 

REAR ADMIRAL RICK SEIF: Thank you very much again, my name is Rear Admiral Rick Seif, I'm the Commander of the United States Submarine Force. For those on the media who had a chance to tour the submarine with me this morning, thank you very much for joining. I hope you got a sense of how fiercely proud and how well-trained that crew is and how proud they are of what they do. So thank you for making the time to join us, and again good morning and thank you to the Federal, State and local leaders. 

Incidentally, I had the chance to give Minister Papalia a tour of the Mississippi about two years ago. I always worry he's going to stowaway and try and lock out with us when [indistinct]. 

This is my fifth visit to Western Australia, and I am always amazed by the history, the connectedness, the sense of family, the sense of teamwork, but I completely agree that this community is really unmatched and really is the centre of gravity and where AUKUS gets real. Every visit has been so rewarding for me, and I thank you. 

We are incredibly excited about this AUKUS security partnership, and I am happy to report that AUKUS is real, it is happening now, it is not something that's way in the distant future, it is happening, and we are on schedule, and we are on plan. 

It is an honour to be here at HMAS Stirling, as I said, the centre of gravity for AUKUS as we join to kick off this important event. 

This visit by a US Virginia-class submarine, USS Hawaii, is actually the sixth attack submarine visit that the United States has conducted by a conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine just in the past few years. And as we've been sailing together, Australian and American sailors riding on US Royal Australian Navy submarines, really for decades, but what makes this unique today and what's different is that for the first time Australian officers, sailors, workers and technicians, assigned to both our submarine tender and our submarine Hawaii, we'll be conducting a wide range of routine planned maintenance right here, right here in Western Australia. 

Working alongside each other, learning from each other, improving our understanding and our interchangeability and our readiness. As I know a lot of you had a chance of touring the submarine tender, US Emory S. Land, they pulled in here to Stirling on August 16th, they'll be conducting planned maintenance on the deployed Virginia-class submarine Hawaii.

This submarine tender maintenance period is noteworthy as an AUKUS Pillar 1 milestone on the path to Australia becoming sovereign ready to operate, maintain and support a fleet of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines. 

The security partnership will increase our interoperability between the Naval forces of Australia, the UK and the United States, and it will benefit Australia's security posture and help preserve a safe, free and open Indo‑Pacific. 

The maintenance that will be taking place over the next few weeks is not the first time that Royal Australian Navy sailors have worked with US Navy sailors to maintain our attack submarines. 

Back home where I live in Pearl Harbor, over 30 Royal Navy-  Royal Australian Navy sailors have been assigned on Emory S. Land in Guam, and then more recently at our Pearl Harbor shipyard. 

We anticipate this number will continue to grow again as we maintain our plan and maintain our pace to achieve our next milestones. 

The Royal Australian Navy sailors who are assigned to Emory S. Land are really going to conduct the majority of the planned maintenance during this period, under the partnership and guidance and working closely with our US Navy personnel. 

Some of the maintenance we'll be doing; to give you a sense, it will be a routine replacement of a mast. I know some of you saw the digital camera and some of the other masts and antennas on the submarine. We periodically replace those as a preventative routine measure. 

We'll also be performing the scheduled replacement of a hydraulic valve, and we'll be simulating the removal of a large pump that would weigh over 1,500 kilograms. 

In addition, the maintenance period will support Australia's nuclear safety and stewardship growth through planning and execution of simulated radiological training evolutions. These training scenarios will not involve the use of any actual radiological material, but the scenarios will reinforce the safe handling and procedures that protect the workforce, the public and the environment. 

These are the same sound practices that have guided our more than 75 years of safe Naval propulsion operations across the world. 

Also in keeping with the broader AUKUS Pillar II technology of stage and innovation, we also have the opportunity to demonstrate cutting edge technology, such as added manufacturing, free metal printing of parts, and the use of unmanned underwater vehicles for routine inspections. 

The maintenance and training that the Royal Australian Navy sailors perform over the next few weeks will prepare them to support operational maintenance, are required for SSNs assigned to Submarine Rotational Force ‑ West here at HMAS Stirling in the near future, and ultimately for Australia's sovereign ready conventionally armed SSN force, as outlined in the Pillar 1 Optimal Pathway. 

Thank you for joining us and thank you for your time this morning. We look forward to the learning and training that will occur over the next few weeks as we complete this important AUKUS milestone. Thank you. 

UK DIRECTOR GENERAL FOR AUKUS DAMIAN PARMENTER: Good morning, I'm Damian Parmenter, I'm the UK's Director General for AUKUS. I'm really here today to talk about the UK role and how we see AUKUS, and I'd like to thank you for inviting me today to make sure that we are a part of this trilateral endeavour.

The UK is really committed to working with AUKUS partners to ensure that Australia is ready to operate, maintain and regulate their future conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine capability. 

For us AUKUS is one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades, it reflects that unique level of trust that exists between our three nations. Most importantly the partnership is bolstering deterrence and demonstrating our long-term commitment to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific and wider. 

Participation of Australian personnel in the maintenance of the US Virginia-class submarine for the first time in Australia, as we've been hearing, is an historic moment, and a really important step in Phase 1 of the Optimal Pathway, and I think it's demonstrating real progress in AUKUS, and that progress will continue. 

Royal Navy personnel are here in Western Australia to understand how the US maintain their Virginia-class, and how that differs from the UK's Astute-class submarines, identifying and adapting learning according to these differences and working with Royal Australian Navy colleagues here will strengthen interoperability ahead of UK SSN port visits as part of the Submarine Rotational Force West in 2027 and the delivery of the SSN AUKUS in the 2040s in Australia. 

Over the last year the UK, along with the US, has been involved in upskilling Australian personnel, which included the embedding of Australian personnel in UK industry and the graduation of Royal Australian Navy personnel in Royal Navy nuclear training at HMS Sultan, where I'm embarrassed to say they came top of the class. 

The UK will continue to support training of Australian personnel to ensure Australia has the skills required to safely operate and maintain their own nuclear-powered submarine capability. 

And finally, I'd just like to recommit, UK remains committed to the AUKUS partnership and we'll continue to ensure our transparent approach, that's the highest non-proliferation standards reflecting our longstanding leadership and respect for the global non-proliferation regime. Thank you. 

JOURNALIST: So maybe, Minister, this is the first real tangible step towards us becoming part of a very select club of nuclear-powered nations, isn't it? 

MINISTER KEOGH: What we're seeing today happening here at HMAS Stirling is really the first big step in actually seeing AUKUS become real in Australia. 

Many people have been out commentating about whether AUKUS can happen, and what we're seeing here happening in Western Australia is AUKUS actually happening here in Australia. Australian personnel having been trained with the Americans operating and performing maintenance on a Virginia-class submarine here in Western Australia, critical step towards our nuclear stewardship, critical step towards us being able to support the rotating fleet of Virginia-class submarines from the United States in just a few years' time. It shows too, I think, not just people in Australia, not just to our AUKUS partners, but around the world, that we are all three of our countries serious about this very important relationship, and we are progressing along the pathway that we outlined between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia to make this a reality. 

JOURNALIST: How much of this is about deterrence, or is it all about deterrence? 

MINISTER KEOGH: There is nothing more deterrent than having a nuclear propelled submarine, and as we are all concerned about maintaining stability across the Indo-Pacific in our region, it is important that the Australian Defence Force and the Australian nation is able to have a potent deterrent force, and that's what the acquisition of the nuclear propelled submarines for Australia is all about. 

JOURNALIST: There's been a lot of commentary about whether we actually need our own nuclear-powered submarines, or shouldn't we just have Submarine Rotational Force West with US and UK subs coming through? What do you say to those critics who say that's all we need; we don't need to spend billions making our own? 

MINISTER KEOGH: Australia is a sovereign nation, and we as an Australian Government understand the vital importance of us being able to stand up and protect our national interest, and having an effective Australian Defence Force with nuclear propelled submarines is a key part of how we ensure our sovereign interest, and that is why we have pursued the AUKUS arrangement with the United States and the United Kingdom to make sure that we have our own sovereign nuclear propelled capability with submarines. 

JOURNALIST: I want to ask the Chief of Navy a question, if that's okay, sir. How excited does it make you to see what's out there and to know that it's coming potentially Australia's way within the next decade? 

CHIEF OF NAVY MARK HAMMOND: I guess it is exciting from a national perspective. From a personal perspective, I've been crawling over Virginias since I was a Commander when I was posted in Washington DC [indistinct]. That's why I say it's evolutionary. We have a shared Development Program for the submarine combat system and for the Mark 48 torpedo system. This is the missing piece of the puzzle, it's the most advanced propulsion system and the safest Naval nuclear propulsion system in the world. 

So in that context, I am excited about the fact that the Australian Submarine Force of the future will be operating in the most survivable and most capable submarines available to our nation. That's what excites me the most. 

JOURNALIST: We've been told that this is the most complex machinery on earth, is that right, it's more complicated than a space shuttle?  

HAMMOND: Submarines full stop are. There are more parts, more components in a high-end submarine than what you find in a space shuttle. They both operate in very unforgiving environments, the deeper you go in the ocean the more unforgiving it is. So it is about as high tech and complex as it gets. 

JOURNALIST: A key part of AUKUS is Australia having a second major submarine base on the East Coast of Australia as well. How far advanced is Navy in terms of at least announcing where that will be? 

HAMMOND: There are two parts to this. One is the Navy's thinking on the issue, and the other one is Government's decision making on the issue, and this is a decision for Government.  

JOURNALIST: So we've heard from the US that we are on track, we're on time. So we're still going to get our own submarines in the 2040s, and things aren't blowing out at this stage? 

HAMMOND: No, we're going to get our own Virginia-class attack submarine in the early 2030s, 2032 is the agreed timeframe, and that's what we're working towards, and as my good friend Rick said, we are on plan, on schedule. 

JOURNALIST: For the SSNs I mean? 

HAMMOND: Oh, for the SSN AUKUS? 

JOURNALIST: Yes. 

HAMMOND: That's subject to construction of the yard, completion of the design and that's a much longer timeframe for those reasons. 

What I would say is that this is a strategic program. I've said it before, strategic programs require strategic focus, strategic resourcing and a degree of strategic patience, and that's what I would ask the Australian community to acknowledge here. 

This isn't- we're not building a car; we're not building a truck or a bus. We're building one of the most complex machines on the planet, and you've got to build the shipyard and the industry and the workforce and the knowhow first. So it's going to take a number of there will be a number of Chiefs of Navies talking to this over the next 20 years, that's for sure. 

JOURNALIST: Could we perhaps ask the, is it Director General, if that's okay, sir. 

DAMIAN PARMENTER: Yes, thank you very much. The key point from the UK perspective is SSN AUKUS will be at the heart of British Naval capability, protecting British deterrence in the North Atlantic, before it is before the ships are being built here in Australia. So SSN AUKUS will be a real thing, we are spending billions on getting those ships for the Royal Navy. It is absolutely superb that we are working in partnership with Australia and America to make our capability even better and to ensure that you yourselves, Australians, have that capability in the 2040s, as we've said. 

JOURNALIST: What confidence can Australians have that it will be delivered on time, bearing in mind that it has been perhaps notoriously difficult to get projects at the United Kingdom on time and on budget, the Hunter Class frigate being the prime example?  

DAMIAN PARMENTER: I think it's a really good question. I think there have been times in the past when there were a lot of campaigns that had been going on in the world, we took our eye off the ball. We are investing billions in our UK nuclear enterprise, our submarine enterprise, we're upskilling. We're going to be on time because we need to be on time given the way the world is going, and that's the confidence I have in the UK to deliver for Australia, in partnership with Australia and the United States. 

JOURNALIST: Are we potentially at an interesting point in time with a new administration in the United Kingdom, potentially a new American President, or a guaranteed new American President or return to a previous administration, how do you describe the interception of time and history that we find ourselves in at the moment with AUKUS? 

DAMIAN PARMENTER: The reason we have AUKUS more than anything is because the strategic environment is changing.  The illegal war we're seeing in Ukraine with Putin's invasion demonstrates to all of us how serious the strategic environment is today, hence the massive investment you're seeing in the UK, the massive investment you're seeing in America. 

Australia acquiring these unique and really capable systems that will keep us ahead of the opposition and ensure we can deter and make sure the stability is there and that we don't suffer the impacts that we've seen happening in Ukraine at the moment. 

JOURNALIST: You say we are- and this is to make sure we're ahead of potential adversaries but we're not going to see this SSN until the 2040s, so will it still be ahead of its time when we get it? Is it going to be ahead of its time now, but not then? 

DAMIAN PARMENTER: We have them today, we have this capability, it's outside. UK has the Astute. On the water is one of those areas where we will maintain our advantage.  It is an area where we are investing an incredible amount of money, and for that reason, and I won't name names, but you know, we are ahead of the opposition, and we'll stay there. 

JOURNALIST: Thank you, sir. 

JOURNALIST: A question for the Australian Navy Chief again, if that's all right. How do you sort of assess the reaction of neighbouring countries, if we're talking about Indo-Pacific, obviously tensions in the last few months, last few years, how do you assess the relationship, or I guess the balance of the relationship with them when you obviously have an AUKUS deal? So we're talking about countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and China, for example. How do you maintain those close relationships? 

HAMMOND: Thank you for your question. In fact, I was just texting with the Chief of Navy of the Philippines about an hour and a half ago, Vice Admiral Adaci, he's hoping to get out here for Exercise Kakadu, I hope that happens. And similarly, Admiral Muhammad Ali, the Chief for the Indonesian Navy KSAL, he and I have been friends for a long time, he's a submariner as well. 

The reality is Chiefs of Navy in the region and Australia enjoy a very good relationship. Most of us communicate very, very regularly. We interact with a number of different international fora, and all of my counterparts in the region that I have a direct relationship with are very comfortable with the AUKUS program and for some reason a lot of them are submariners right now, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, to name a few. 

So I think the understanding of what we're doing and why we're doing it, and our authority to do as a sovereign nation is well understood, it's not an issue for me. 

JOURNALIST: And just quickly on community concerns on the [indistinct], what's the response to that?  

HAMMOND: What we're looking at being generated from activities such as this from 2027 in the fullness of time is low level radiological byproduct which is consistent with that generated at over 100 locations in Australia already, from universities, hospitals and research locations, et cetera. 

So in the short term I think we should be very, very comfortable with what we're doing here. We're not talking about disposing of Naval nuclear reactors at the moment, okay? There needs to be a strategic plan for that, that is under development, under consideration, but it's not a here and now issue. 

JOURNALIST: And also Indo-Pacific Summit in November, what are some of the things that we would take to that? 

HAMMOND: The Indo‑Pacific Summit, do you mean the Sea Power Conference that we host? 

JOURNALIST: Yep. 

HAMMOND: That's November next year. 

JOURNALIST: Oh, next year. Thank you.