One Year Later, Rep. Courtney Breaks Down How Congress Made AUKUS a Reality
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a new video, Rep. Joe Courtney AO details the tremendous progress made to advance the trilateral AUKUS security agreement in just one year since Congress passed landmark legislation to enable the mission.
“The amazing accomplishment that took place in Washington in 2023 made the idea of AUKUS a reality– and it is happening not just in terms of legislation, but in real life,” said Courtney AO, Co-Chair of the Friends of Australia Caucus and the AUKUS Working Group.
The FY24 National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law December 22, 2023, included authorities Courtney championed to sell Virginia Class submarines to Australia, accept Australia’s $3 billion investment into the US submarine industrial base, train Australians in submarine maintenance, streamline technology sharing, and include Australia and the U.K. in the Defense Production Act.
“Getting those provisions through the Congress didn’t happen by itself. There’s no question that the intensive effort to educate Members of Congress by the Embassies of the U.K. and Australia was instrumental in getting these provisions passed and into law,” continued Courtney AO. “In the 1950s when the government of the U.K. attempted to get a similar measure passed through the US Congress it took 13 years. The provisions we passed in 2023 were enacted over the course of six or seven months. Quite extraordinary.”
One year later, the three nations have transformed that legislative authority into real action to train-up Australians, prepare for the sale of Virginia Class submarines, and safely streamline technology and information sharing. Jump to Rep. Courtney detailing that progress in his video or read more here.
Key Milestones Achieved in 2024 Enabled by the FY24 NDAA:
Training Australians in Operating Nuclear-Powered Submarines:
In March 2024, a cohort of 20 Australian industry personnel from the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) completed a successful three-month placement at Pearl Harbor Naval shipyard in Hawaii. This was the first time Australian industry personnel had performed work in a US shipyard.
In January 2024, nearly 40 Australian Navy sailors reported to the submarine tender USS Emory Land (AS 39) in Guam to begin training and gaining the necessary skills for submarine maintenance.
In August 2024, the USS Emory Land ported in Perth to begin the submarine maintenance tender period for the Virginia Class Submarine, USS Hawaii. This is the first time a United States attack submarine received maintenance in Australia.
For the first time under AUKUS, thanks to the Courtney-Gallagher amendment in the FY23 NDAA, seven Royal Australian Navy enlisted sailors graduated from the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power School at Joint Base Charleston-Naval Weapons Station. This is another critical step to ensuring Australia is ready to operate its sovereign Virginia class submarines, which are typically crewed by 15 officers and 117 enlisted submariners, by the early 2030s.
As of October 2024, there are six Royal Australian Navy officers serving aboard or assigned to U.S. Navy Virginia-class submarines, 12 officers and 28 enlisted sailors within the naval nuclear power training pipeline with an additional 19 enlisted sailors completing Basic Enlisted Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut. Additionally, 39 personnel from ASC Pty Ltd. (formerly known as the Australian Submarine Corporation) are training at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to prepare them for future roles in maintaining nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.
Preparing for the Sale of Virginia Class Submarines:
Congress is doubling down on investments in the submarine industrial base to ensure the Secretary of Defense in 2032 can confidently sign off on the sale of the first Virginia Class submarine to Australia. Those investments are paying dividends:
Building a Stronger Workforce: The U.S. Navy’s lead shipyard for submarine construction – Electric Boat – hired a record number of employees (5,300+) in 2023, retaining 88% of its workforce, and the company hired over 4,000 workers in 2024.
Training pipelines are excelling: Thousands of new shipyard workers were trained in record time just last year, fueled by strong, federally funded workforce development programs and a dramatic shift toward trade education in conventional high school curricula.
Shipyard capacity is increasing: Newport News Shipbuilding has invested in four major new building projects to increase efficiency and capacity expansion in support of achieving “1+2” build rate for Virginia Class production and serial production of the Columbia Class program in FY26.
Production tempo is rising: Workforce growth and increased capacity are a big part of the reason that, in 2024, the Navy commissioned USS New Jersey, the 23rd Virginia sub, and received delivery of the USS Iowa. In 2025, the Navy will take delivery of USS Massachusetts and Idaho, the 25th and 26th boats in the class.
Adding the U.K. and Australia to the Defense Production Act:
In April of 2024, the Department of Defense implemented Defense Production Act authorities to include Australia and the U.K. as a domestic source. This is only the second time in the history of the Defense Production Act that a foreign country has been considered a domestic source – Canada being the first.
That authority has been implemented by the Department of Defense through the Defense Industrial Base Consortium.
Streaming Technology Sharing through Export Control Reform:
Thanks to the FY24 NDAA, the US State Department amended our export control regulations – known as the ITAR – to allow for license free defense trade between US, U.K., and Australian industry.
In September 2024, those regulations went into effect and is a generational leap in defense cooperation by allowing our trilateral industrial bases to engage in the exchange of information, services, and technology without having to go through government red tape that takes time and personnel to approve
As stipulated in the FY24 NDAA, both Australia and the U.K. enhanced their export control regulations before receiving that license-free certification to ensure that transferred US technology is under the highest safeguards.