‘A facility for them’: Labor says WA shipyard to be used by US for sub maintenance as it commits $12bn | Aukus

After the federal government has committed $ 12 billion to raise the shipyard, the United States will be able to use a large maritime region in Western Australia to protect the US’s own nuclear energy submarines.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Arbanese insisted that the shipyard was a “Australian facility, because it was time to appease the demands for Australian defense expenditures before the United States’s face -to -face meeting with Donald Trump.

The Pentagon also reviews the AUKUS agreement.

“Australia has always pulled our weight,” the Albania said the government’s defense expenditures.

On Sunday, Albanian and Defense Minister Richard Marles announced a 12 billion dollar commitment to a major redevelopment of the Henderson Naval Shipyard in the south of Perth.

The Henderson region, which is estimated to cost Marles for $ 25 billion for 10 years, will be used for Australia’s Future Nuclear Energy Fleets, as well as to be placed and maintained alongside other sea ships creating projects.

Starting from 2032, the Federal Government plans to buy three to five virginia class submarines from the United States within the scope of the AUKUS agreement of $ 368 billion. The nuclear submarines owned by the US and the UK will start to return in Hmas Stirling in Western Australia from 2027.

On Sunday, Albania and Marles confirmed that the US Navy could use Henderson and offers Washington a place to maintain and maintain strategically significant submarines in the Pacific region.

“This is a very dominant ability to dominate Australia, and this is its purpose,” Marles said.

“But with regard to the maintenance of the submarine, this is a Aukus plant.

Marles said that this was a “basically an Australian announcement, but there was no doubt that the decision in the United States and England would be welcomed with the decision that the decision was“ a step towards Aukus ”.

The difficulties in keeping the US submarines in water have been well documented. Reports in 2023 He claimed that almost 40% of his fleet expects repair or maintenance due to labor deficiencies and supply chain problems.

The Albanian government was given to the USA, the USA, the USA, the US, the US, the USA to the USA with the delivery of the first Virginia -class submarines to Australia due to the increase in the US in the early 2030s.

For the Henderson Shipyard, an announcement of $ 12 billion follows the public pressure from the Trump administration in Australia to increase its general defense expenditures to 3.5% of GDP.

The commitment alone will be far below the US demand, which is approximately $ 40 billion per year.

The government has spent 56 billion dollars on the defense, which has a roughly 2% of the GDP, and plans to increase about 2.4% of GDP to $ 100.4 billion in 2033-34.

In an earlier interview on ABC’s Internal Program, Marles reduced the importance of GDP as a measure of defense expenditures, although the government has used it over and over again in the past.

“We focused on the amount of dollars,” he argued that the ratio of Australia would be 2.8% under the method used by NATO countries.

On Sunday, Marles said that after the US Secretary of State reported to the Trump administration’s support to AUKUS, he was “really confident .. Marco RubioHe was personally confident that he would not be sunk following the Pentagon review.

Bruce Wolpe, a senior member of the United States Research Center, said the federal government’s announcement of the Henderson Shipyard announced that the AUKUS agreement was safe.

“Actually, if Aukus was at a fatal danger, why would you make such an announcement?” he said. “The answer to this question is that it is not in a fatal danger.”

Albanian Papua will travel to New Guinea On Monday, the Pacific Nation’s independence is expected to sign a new defense agreement on the eve of the 50th anniversary.

The Prime Minister will return to Australia on Wednesday before flying to the United States for the first face -to -face meeting with the UN General Assembly Summit in New York and Trump.