US urged not to sell subs to Australia

A PLAN for Australia to lease or buy American nuclear submarines has been slapped down by two top US lawmakers, who have warned Joe Biden it would weaken their own fleet.

The option has been under consideration in Washington DC, Canberra and London as the AUKUS partners finalise how Australia can acquire its own nuclear-powered boats.

But in a bipartisan intervention, Democrat Jack Reed and Republican James Inhofe warned Mr Biden last year that it risked “stressing the US submarine industrial base to the breaking point”.

Their letter, reported by the Breaking Defense website, cautioned that AUKUS was turning into a “zero-sum game” that would leave the US Navy without enough submarines, and that it would “take decades” to deliver an Australian fleet.

Mr Reed is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, while Mr Inhofe was the ranking member on the committee until this week.

“We are concerned that what was initially touted as a ‘do no harm’ opportunity to support Australia and the United Kingdom and build long-term competitive advantages for the US and its Pacific allies, may be turning into a zero-sum game for scarce, highly advanced US (nuclear submarines),” they wrote to Mr Biden. “We urge you to adopt a ‘do no harm’ approach to AUKUS negotiations and ensure that sovereign US national security capabilities will not be diminished as we work to build this strategic partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom.”

While they backed Australia’s push to operate a nuclearpowered fleet, they said “such a goal will take decades to achieve”.

“We cannot simply ignore contemporary realities in the meantime,” they wrote.

News Corp revealed last month that while US submarines were expected to visit Australia more regularly, Defence Minister Richard Marles had rejected basing them here.

The AUKUS partners are due to unveil the submarine plan for Australia within months.