Sir Stephen Lovegrove used a public evidence session to deliver his sharpest assessment yet of the AUKUS programme, telling MPs that the UK must “quite seriously accelerate” work at Barrow if it is to meet the late-2030s target for the first SSN-AUKUS submarine.
Lovegrove, now the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on AUKUS, said he had been given unrestricted access during his review and found a programme that remains strategically sound but under real schedule pressure. He reminded MPs that AUKUS is “colossal” in scope and the biggest UK defence collaboration in decades.
On the submarine pillar, he said productivity and funding have improved over the past year but the central challenge is unchanged: the UK needs the functional capacity to run two submarine production lines at Barrow while simultaneously building the deterrent boats. “Progress had been made, but not as quickly as it needed to be,” he said. His point estimates remain the late 2030s for the first UK boat and the early 2040s for Australia’s first hull.
He also highlighted the scale of Australia’s task, noting that Canberra must build an entire sovereign maintenance and construction ecosystem while preparing to operate the three Virginia-class submarines it will buy from the United States. He argued for deeper alignment between the UK and Australian systems to secure long term resilience across the nuclear-submarine enterprise.
On the advanced-capabilities pillar, Lovegrove said his review found “too many ideas” and insufficient focus. He recommended concentrating resources on a smaller set of trilateral projects. Proposals agreed with Canberra are now with Washington. The specific areas remain classified.
Lovegrove’s sharpest intervention was on governance. He argued that all three AUKUS nations had lost some central grip following leadership changes and the departure of key officials. He warned that if AUKUS drifts into a routine procurement silo inside defence ministries “we will all be in trouble”, stressing that the project requires sustained Prime-Minister-level direction. His appointment was one of several measures intended to rebuild that central coordination.
He also urged a stronger communications effort, saying public understanding remains limited in the UK compared with Australia. Because adversaries are actively targeting AUKUS with disinformation, he said the UK needs to explain its purpose more clearly to allies and domestic audiences. He pointed out that the programme is not solely about the Indo-Pacific and that it “radically improves and enlarges our deterrent capability in our own backyard” across the Euro-Atlantic.
Lovegrove framed AUKUS as a multi-decade project that will only succeed if political resolve is sustained. Asked whether he had been constrained by terms of reference, he said he had “absolute carte blanche” during the review and that ministers accepted his main findings earlier this year.
