Albanese dismisses Aukus concerns as submarine shipyard cost revealed to be $30bn | Australian military

At least $30 billion will be spent to build a construction site to build nuclear submarines for Australia under the Aukus deal, despite doubts about the deal.

The federal government has committed $3.9 billion as a “down payment” to secure the future of the subsea construction site in Adelaide’s northern suburb of Osborne, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Sunday.

The government hopes the project will create 10,000 jobs in design and construction, as well as up to 1,000 apprentices a year at the on-site training facility.

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The staggering cost of the facility is made clear by the size of its designed footprint.

Enough steel and 710 thousand cubic meters of structural concrete will be used in the construction of the 420-meter-long manufacturing hall, enough for the construction of 17 Eiffel Towers.

The future of Aukus has remained uncertain for months, ever since the United States announced it would review the terms of the agreement.

But the prime minister dismissed concerns that the promised shipyard would never see an Aukus ship.

“This is in the interests of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia,” Albanese said on Sunday.

The $30 billion price tag comes from an estimate provided by Maritime Infrastructure Australia, the government’s hand-picked company tasked with delivering the Aukus facility.

In addition to construction, the new shipyard will also include testing and commissioning of submarines.

An estimate of how long it will take to complete the shipyard or whether the $30 billion figure will increase has not been confirmed.

Defense has become a fast-growing sector for South Australia, with the country’s first missile factory recently opening in Port Wakefield.

Osborne currently hosts existing facilities for Collins-class and Hunter-class submarines.

“When Holden closed, 1,200 people were working; 4,000 people will be needed to build this facility,” said the state’s premier, Peter Malinauskas.

“It’s hard to truly comprehend the amount of high-paying skilled jobs that are coming our way for South Australians.”

The announcement of a decades-long infrastructure commitment comes just a month after a South Australian state election.

A poll on Wednesday showed Labor with a 61-39 lead over the Liberals on bipartisan terms.