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Nuclear sub deal on "strongest possible footing": US

By AAP Newswire

Dec 5, 2025

Nuclear sub deal on "strongest possible footing": US — A Pentagon review of the AUKUS nuclear subs deal has put it on the "strongest possible footing". -AAP Image

The Pentagon has completed its review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership and found areas to put the deal on the "strongest possible footing," a US official says.

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President Donald Trump's administration said in June it had launched a formal review into the AUKUS defence deal - worth hundreds of billions of dollars - that will allow Australia to acquire US nuclear-powered submarines, and also involves Britain.

"Consistent with President Trump's guidance that AUKUS should move 'full steam ahead,' the review identified opportunities to put AUKUS on the strongest possible footing," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Thursday.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia had received the United States' review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership and is "working through it".

It had sparked alarm in Canberra, but concerns were eased when Trump signaled his support for the program in a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House in October.

The review was led by the Pentagon's Under Secretary Elbridge Colby, who said last year that submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and US industry could not produce enough to meet American demand.

AUKUS is Australia's biggest-ever defence project, with Canberra committing to spend $A368 billion over three decades to the program, which includes billions of dollars of investment in the US submarine production base.