US reviewing Aukus submarine pact as part of 'America First' agenda

WASHINGTON — The US has launched a review of its multi-billion dollar submarine deal with the UK and Australia, saying the security pact must fit its "America First" agenda.
Under the trilateral pact, believed to be aimed at countering China, Australia is to get its first nuclear-powered subs from the US, before the allies create a new fleet by sharing cutting-edge tech.
Both Australia and the UK - which did its own review last year - have played down news of the US probe, saying it is natural for a new administration to reassess.
The move comes as both Australia and the UK face pressure from the White House to lift military spending, demands heeded by Downing Street but largely resisted by Canberra.
The Aukus agreement - worth £176bn ($239bn; A$368bn) - was signed in 2021, when all three countries involved had different leaders.
A US defense official told the BBC the pact was being reviewed "as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous administration is aligned with the President's America First agenda".
"As [US Defence] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth has made clear, this means ensuring the highest readiness of our servicemembers [and] that allies step up fully to do their part for collective defense," the defense official said.
The US has been pushing allies to start spending at least 3% of GDP on defense as soon as possible.
The UK has agreed to spend 2.5% of GDP on its defense by 2028, and 3% by the next parliament, while Australia has also said it will lift funding, but not to the 3.5% that the US wants.
The review will be headed up by Elbridge Colby, who has previously been critical of Aukus, in a speech last year questioning why the US would give away "this crown jewel asset when we most need it".
Defense Minister Richard Marles, speaking to local Australian media on Thursday morning local time, said he was optimistic the deal would continue.
"I'm very confident this is going to happen," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"You just need to look at the map to understand that Australia absolutely needs to have a long-range submarine capability."
Some in Australia have been lobbying for the country to develop a more self-reliant defense strategy, but Marles said it was important to "stick to a plan" - a reference to the previous government's controversial cancellation of a submarine deal with France in favor of Aukus.
An Australian government spokesperson told the BBC it was "natural" that the new administration would "examine" the agreement, adding the UK had also recently finished a review of the security pact between the long-standing allies.
There is "clear and consistent" support for the deal across the "full political spectrum" in the US, they said, adding Australia looked forward to "continuing our close cooperation with the Trump Administration on this historic project".
A UK defense spokesperson told the BBC it was "understandable" for a new administration to look at the deal, "just as the UK did last year".
Aukus is a "landmark security and defense partnership with two of our closest allies", the spokesperson said, and "one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades, supporting peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic".
Jennifer Kavanagh, from American thinktank Defense Priorities, told the BBC that the US was "absolutely right to take another look at this deal" as its submarine capacities were already stretched.
"The US cannot meet its own demand for these nuclear-powered submarines," she said.
The other concern the US might have is whether Australia would use the submarines they buy in the way the US wants them to, she said, particularly if conflict erupts over Taiwan.
Dr Kavanagh said the review might see the security pact shift its focus away from providing submarines to sharing other long-range weapons technology.
However, if the US were to pull out of the deal, China would "celebrate" as they have long criticized the deal, Dr Kavanagh added.
For Australia, the deal represents a major upgrade to its military capabilities. The country becomes just the second after the UK to receive Washington's elite nuclear propulsion technology.
Such submarines will be able to operate further and faster than the country's existing diesel-engine fleet and Australia would also be able to carry out long-range strikes against enemies for the first time.
It is a big deal for the US to share what is often called the "crown jewels" of its defence technology.
But arming Australia has historically been viewed by Washington and Downing Street as essential to preserving peace in a region they themselves aren't a part of.
From 2027, the pact will allow both the US and UK to base a small number of nuclear submarines in Perth, Western Australia.
Canberra will also buy three second-hand Virginia-class submarines from the US at a yet-to-be-determined date in the early 2030s - with options to purchase two more.
After that, the plan is to design and build an entirely new nuclear-powered submarine model for the UK and Australian navies.
This attack craft will be built in Britain and Australia to a British design, but use technology from all three countries.
The security alliance has repeatedly drawn criticism from China, with the foreign ministry in Beijing saying it risked creating an arms race. — BBC

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Arab News

9 hours ago

• Arab News

BBC threatens legal action against AI startup Perplexity over content scraping

LONDON: The BBC has threatened legal action against Perplexity, accusing the AI startup of training its 'default AI model' using BBC content, the Financial Times reported on Friday, making the British broadcaster the latest news organisation to accuse the AI firm of content scraping. The BBC may seek an injunction unless Perplexity stops scraping its content, deletes existing copies used to train its AI systems, and submits 'a proposal for financial compensation' for the alleged misuse of its intellectual property, FT said, citing a letter sent to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. The broadcaster confirmed the FT report on Friday. Perplexity has faced accusations from media organizations, including Forbes and Wired, for plagiarizing their content but has since launched a revenue-sharing program to address publisher concerns. Last October, the New York Times sent it a 'cease and desist' notice, demanding the firm stop using the newspaper's content for generative AI purposes. Since the introduction of ChatGPT, publishers have raised alarms about chatbots that comb the internet to find information and create paragraph summaries for users. The BBC said that parts of its content had been reproduced verbatim by Perplexity and that links to the BBC website have appeared in search results, according to the FT report. Perplexity called the BBC's claims 'manipulative and opportunistic' in a statement to Reuters, adding that the broadcaster had 'a fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law.' Perplexity provides information by searching the internet, similar to ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and is backed by (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, AI giant Nvidia (NVDA.O), and Japan's SoftBank Group (9984.T). The startup is in advanced talks to raise $500 million in a funding round that would value it at $14 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Saudi Gazette

16 hours ago

• Saudi Gazette

US joining Israeli strikes would cause hell, says Iranian minister

LONDON — The US joining Israeli strikes would cause "hell for the whole region", Iran's deputy foreign minister has told the BBC. Saeed Khatibzadeh said this is "not America's war" and if US President Donald Trump does get involved, he will always be remembered as "a president who entered a war he doesn't belong in". He said US involvement would turn the conflict into a "quagmire", continue aggression and delay an end to the "brutal atrocities". His comments came after the Soroka hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack. Iranian state media reported that the strike targeted a military site next to the hospital, and not the facility itself. Israel's Ministry of Health said 71 people were injured during the attack on the Soroka Medical Center. Meanwhile, Israel's military said it had targeted Iran's nuclear sites including the "inactive" Arak heavy water reactor and Natanz has not given an update on casualties in Iran from Israeli latest attacks come at a critical time. On Thursday, the White House said Trump would decide whether or not the US gets directly involved in the conflict within the next two to the BBC, Khatibzadeh insisted that "of course, diplomacy is the first option", but said but while bombardment continues "we cannot start any negotiation".He repeatedly called Iran's attacks on Israel "self defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter" and said "we were in the middle of diplomacy" when in a major escalation of the conflict on 13 June, Israel launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, killing several top generals and nuclear deputy foreign minister called the conflict "unprovoked" and "unnecessary".Responding to Trump's repeated comments that the conflict could have been avoided if Iran had accepted a nuclear deal, Khatibzadeh said they were negotiating until Israel "sabotaged" discussions by launching attacks Iran."We were planning to have the sixth round of nuclear talks in Muscat, and we were actually on the verge of reaching an agreement," he said."President Trump knows better than anybody else that we were on the verge of reaching an agreement."He also criticized Trump's "confusing and contradictory" social media posts and interviews, which he said indicated "that Americans have been aware and have participated" in the special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have reportedly spoken on the phone several times since Friday, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, Reuters to three diplomats who spoke to the news agency and asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the has alleged Iran has recently "taken steps to weaponise" its enriched uranium stockpile, which can be used for power plants or nuclear bombs. Iran has always claimed that its nuclear program is entirely Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the UN's nuclear watchdog - said Iran had amassed enough uranium enriched up to 60% purity - a short technical step away from weapons grade, or 90% — to potentially make nuclear bombs."This is nonsense," Khatibzadeh said in response. "You cannot start a war based on speculation or intention."If we wanted to have a nuclear bomb, we would have had it way before."Iran has never developed any program for nuclear weaponization of peaceful nuclear activities. Bottom line."IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said that nuclear facilities "must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances, as it could harm both people and the environment".Khatibzadeh also discussed potential diplomatic channels after a G7 summit in said: "What we are hearing from Europeans is that they would like to get back to diplomacy at a ministerial level"."They are going to have a meeting in Geneva and we are very much happy that finally they have to come and talk at the table about the issues at hand." — BBC

Leaders

a day ago

• Leaders

Americans Protest against US Involvement in Iran-Israel Conflict

Dozens of Americans demonstrated across several US cities, protesting against potential involvement in Israel's war on Iran, according to multiple news outlets. Since Israel launched a military operation against Iran on June 13, 2025, small demonstrations took place across many cities in the US, rejecting Washington's intervention in the war. On Tuesday, protests took place in San Jose, California. Some demonstrators waved Iranian flags, while others held up signs saying 'Hands Off Iran.' The San Jose Peace and Justice group organized the demonstration, Newsweek reported citing local news outlets. Milwaukee in Wisconsin saw demonstrations on Monday, where hundreds showed up for a 'hands-off Iran' protest. They also called for imposing an arms embargo on Israel. The protest was organized by the Milwaukee Anti-War Coalition. Similarly, the Bronx Anti-War group held a 'Solidarity with Iran' protest in New York City. Moreover, the Associated Press (AP) reported a protest in Los Angeles on Wednesday rejecting the US potential intervention in the conflict. A video showed demonstrators carrying signs reading 'Refuse Unlawful Orders,' 'No US-Israel War on Iran' and 'We Won't Let You Drag US into Global War!' Anti-war demonstrators also gathered in front of the White House on Wednesday, calling for an arms embargo on Israel, according to CBS News. The US President, Donald Trump, has left open the possibility of joining Israel in its war on Iran, raising controversy among his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base. During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to keep the US away from foreign wars, under his 'America First' promises. However, Trump's stance on the Iran-Israel conflict has drawn criticism from some prominent conservative commentators, including Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, who refuse US military action against Iran. Furthermore, the independent US Senator, Bernie Sanders, urged Trump not to drag the US into Israel's war. Short link : Post Views: 24