A trilateral security partnership called AUKUS was formed on September 15, to counter the influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. Under the deal, jointly announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the U.S. and the U.K. pledged to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines for deployment in the region. A nuclear-powered submarine enables a navy to reach far out into the ocean and launch attacks. The deal upset China, which is getting increasingly aggressive in the Pacific region, especially in and around the South China Sea. In this context, it is significant to note that the U.S., Australia, India and Japan are also members of a strategic security dialogue known as “the Quad.”
Under the Aukus pact, the US and UK will help Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, the first time that Washington and London will be sharing sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Canberra.
To begin the partnership, naval officials and technical specialists from the three countries will work together over the next 18 months to equip Australia with the technology to deploy nuclear-powered submarines. But given the complexity of the technology, Australia’s nuclear submarine fleet may not be operational until about 2040.
The biggest benefit of nuclear-powered submarines is that they are able to stay submerged longer, with enough fuel to theoretically run for years, which is an advantage in stealth attacks. Conventional submarines that use diesel-powered electric motors have to resurface regularly so that their batteries can be recharged, allowing them to be spotted more easily.
Just because submarines are nuclear-powered, it does not mean that they are carrying nuclear warheads. Nonetheless, the technology is sensitive because US and British submarine reactors use uranium that is enriched at 93 to 97 per cent, and anything above 90 per cent is considered “weapons-grade” uranium with potentially dangerous implications.
There are currently only six countries with nuclear-powered submarines – the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and India – with Australia set to become the seventh under the new pact. The US is the world leader in this area, with 68 nuclear-powered submarines, while Russia has 29 and China has 12, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based research centre.
Credit : South China Morning Post
Picture Credit : Google
