Australia confirmed Sunday that the United States will be able to use a planned submarine maintenance hub in Western Australia, underscoring deepening defense ties under the AUKUS security pact.
Defense Minister Richard Marles said facilities at Henderson shipyard near Perth — slated for a A$12 billion ($8 billion) upgrade — will primarily serve Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines but will also be open to US vessels.
“This is an AUKUS facility and so I would expect so,” Marles told ABC television. “It is being built in the context of AUKUS, and I would expect that in the future this would be available to the US.”
The announcement follows Canberra’s 20-year plan to transform Henderson into the maintenance hub for its AUKUS fleet. The shipyard will also produce new landing craft for the Australian army and general-purpose frigates for the navy, a program expected to create around 10,000 local jobs.
Australia’s center-left Labor government committed an initial A$127 million last year for preliminary upgrades.
Read Also: South Korean Workers Caught in U.S. Raid Return Home
The trilateral AUKUS pact — agreed by Australia, Britain, and the US in 2021 — is aimed at countering China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. Under the deal, Australia will purchase several US-built Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines before joining Britain in co-developing a new “AUKUS-class” submarine.
While the agreement has faced scrutiny — with the Trump administration currently reviewing the pact — bipartisan support in Washington remains strong. In July, both Republican and Democratic leaders of a congressional committee on strategic competition with China reaffirmed their backing for AUKUS, even as Pentagon policy official Elbridge Colby, a vocal critic, leads the review.
Australia also signed a treaty with Britain in July to formalize 50 years of cooperation on AUKUS projects, signaling confidence the pact will endure despite political shifts in Washington.
