Construction of the first SSN-AUKUS attack submarine will begin next year, with the Defence Investment Plan confirming the commitment to build up to 12 of the next-generation boats for the Royal Navy.
The plan states the UK is “building up to 12 next-generation SSN-A nuclear powered, conventionally armed attack submarines, and we will cut steel on the first boat next year,” adding that “these will be the same class of submarines that Australia will also build under AUKUS.” Alongside the boats themselves, the document lists investment in weapons systems and sensors for underwater drones as the signature project under AUKUS Pillar 2, the strand of the partnership covering advanced technologies rather than the submarines.
SSN-AUKUS is the successor to the Astute class, a design based on the UK’s next-generation attack submarine adapted to incorporate American and Australian technology under the trilateral partnership. The British boats will be built by BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness with their reactors manufactured by Rolls-Royce at Raynesway in Derby, the same sites building the Dreadnought ballistic missile submarines, and Australia plans to construct boats of the same class at Osborne in South Australia, having also arranged to buy three American Virginia-class submarines to bridge the gap until its own production line is running. Defence minister Lord Coaker revealed this week that the fifth SSN-AUKUS reactor is already in manufacture at Raynesway, where Rolls-Royce has broken ground on a doubling of the site.
The plan supports the build with a series of industrial commitments across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, including a Submarine Build Modernisation effort to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate production and improve productivity in support of AUKUS, the expansion of reactor core manufacturing at Raynesway for the UK and Australian navies, a multi-decade infrastructure programme at HM Naval Base Clyde to ready the base for Dreadnought and SSN-A boats, three floating docks at Faslane enabling out-of-water engineering for all submarine classes, and dock upgrades at Devonport. A Nuclear Fuels Programme backed by £1.7 billion will explore re-establishing a nuclear fuel cycle for defence reactor fuel, and the Defence Nuclear Enterprise will invest over £290 million in nuclear skills.
The steel cut will come with Barrow already at an unprecedented tempo, with the final Astute completing, the four Dreadnought boats in build following the start of construction on HMS King George VI last year, and the first SSN-A joining them on the ways. Overall nuclear deterrent spending in the plan runs to £63 billion over the next four years across Dreadnought, SSN-AUKUS and the warhead programme, and the government is targeting a drumbeat of a new submarine every 18 months from the expanded Barrow and Raynesway facilities, a rate some analysis has described as demanding without further capacity growth.
This is excellent news, but the focus in the immediate future has to be to get the Astutes back to sea ASAP.
Not really much that can be done. Just going to have to wait and clear the backlog.
So that must mean the design is nearly complete? Or is it more that the first bit of steel are just so generic in size and shape you don’t need a completed design?
The design was (according to the Aussies) around 70% complete some three years ago. Given they’ve ordered LLTIs and are furnishing FMS of VLS from the USA, I think that it’s almost certainly in the final design stages.
Really that’s a quick turnaround, thought we would still be in the early stages with how glacial our design process is. However I wonder how much of the design has actually changed from the original SSNR design.
Wonder when they will release some basic design specs and some sort of rendered image of what it will look like. Obviously nothing sensitive, just stuff you can see on Wikipedia.
I mean, SSN(R) was announced in 2018, so design work on a replacement submarine has been ongoing for some eight years now.
I suspect there’s probably been not too much physical redesign. Many of Australia’s requirements are software-based. The British hull wouldn’t need heavy alterations to fit things like AN/BYG-1 or the ADCAP.
You can check out renders on the Wikipedia page, and there are some images of various models on the Reddit pages. As for specifications, we know it’ll be about 10,000t, use an Anglicised version of AN/BYG-1, British sensors, and be compatible with the Mk48 ADCAP, Spearfish, Tomahawk and potentially Conventional Prompt Strike.
Easily Britain’s single most important capability (following nuclear deterrence).
I’d take 12 SSNs over 6 cruisers any time. They’re just far, far more survivable and dangerous.
The people deserve the AAW submarine.
I agree with you but neglecting AAW in the way we are trending towards is incredibly dangerous for a carrier navy.
The budget is limited, and something has to be compromised. If certain conditions are met (for example, ensuring each CCV possesses a significant radar capability, I believe the RN can make it work well.
Time will tell.
Have they bothered to plan the maintaining of them this time? 🤡🤡