What is the AUKUS pact?
It is about more than just submarines
ON MARCH 13TH Joe Biden, America’s president, accompanied by Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak, the prime ministers of Australia and Britain respectively, gathered in front of the USS Missouri, a Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine in San Diego, California. The three leaders announced a plan for the implementation of AUKUS, a pact the three countries signed in September 2021. So what is AUKUS?
The core of AUKUS is a pledge by America and Britain to help Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered—but not nuclear-armed—attack submarines, which are known as SSNs (subs that carry intercontinental nuclear missiles are known as SSBNs, the “B” standing for “ballistic”). Australia had been due to buy diesel-electric boats from France to replace its current subs, which were commissioned in the 1990s. But nuclear-powered subs can stay underwater for far longer. They can carry conventional missiles, but equally important are their abilities to collect intelligence and to deploy special forces ashore.
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