Australia to Prioritize 'Strategic Needs' in Acquiring New Submarines After Taiwan Strait Tensions

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles has said the country's “strategic needs” must take priority over local construction requirements as the government looks for options to plug its “capability gap” created by the 2040 deadline for delivery of nuclear-attack submarines (SSNs) under the trilateral AUKUS pact.

Under the AUKUS arrangement announced last September, the US and UK would supply Canberra with technology to develop SSNs domestically.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is all set to retire its fleet of Collins-class diesel-electric submarines before the end of the decade, which would have the effect of leaving Canberra without any frontline submarines until it receives its first deliveries under the AUKUS arrangement.

However, Marles has now indicated that the government is open to buying submarines from overseas, as the nation faces its “worst strategic environment” in decades after Beijing conducted “live-fire” and ballistic missile drills in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week.

The war games by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in six regions around Taiwan, the biggest to date, continued on Monday, with the Eastern Theatre Command saying it would now focus on anti-submarine and air-to-ship strikes. Previously, the PLA said that the military drills would only take place until Sunday [7 August].

"Capability and strategic need must drive decision-making. That is how we have to think about it. And there’s got to be clarity of thought about that. The industry follows that," said Marles, who is also Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister, in an interview with Fairfax Media, on Monday.

He added that “we need to be looking at every option about how we plug that gap”.

The perceptible change of stance in Australia’s defense acquisition policy comes after the government last week announced details of the “Defense Strategic Review” to meet the nation’s “security challenges over the next decade and beyond”.

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PM Anthony Albanese said that the Review was being announced to analyze changes in Australia’s “strategic environment” since 2020, an apparent reference to perceived strategic differences between Canberra and its largest trading partner Beijing.

In a joint statement after a meeting of top diplomats on the sidelines of the 55thASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Phnom Penh last week, , Australia, the US, and Japan “condemned” Beijing’s military drills for “destabilizing the region”.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Australia has slammed Canberra for “pointing the finger” at Beijing.

“The incidents prove it is the US which is the biggest saboteur and destabilizer of peace in the Taiwan Strait and the biggest troublemaker to regional stability. It is the US that should be condemned. China is the victim of political provocation from the US,” a Chinese embassy statement said over the weekend.