A British nuclear-powered submarine has arrived in Australia for an unprecedented month-long visit despite the well-chronicled problems plaguing the British navy’s ability to send its vessels to sea.
The British and Australian governments are holding up the visit as a sign of the countries’ commitment to the AUKUS pact, even as the United Kingdom views Russia as its most pressing security threat.
HMS Anson, an Astute-class nuclear-powered submarine, arrived on Sunday at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Perth for a month-long maintenance visit.
Defence Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy described the first such visit by a UK nuclear‑powered submarine in Australia as a “historic step in our nation’s readiness to operate and maintain conventionally armed, nuclear‑powered submarines”.
HMS Anson, which was commissioned in 2022, is reportedly the only available submarine in the British navy’s fleet of five Astute-class boats, highlighting the significance of the extended deployment to Australia.
British defence publication Navy Lookout has written that the “timing of the deployment seems extraordinary” as the British navy does not have any other Astute-class submarines available.
“The UK must continue to play its part in AUKUS, but in the short term, perhaps more local concerns should be the priority,” the publication argued this month.
“Placing the sole attack submarine on the other side of the globe appears to be at odds with vigorous official warnings to Russia that ‘any threat will be met with strength and resolve’.”
Navy Lookout said the British navy’s other four Astute-class submarines were “all at low or very low readiness”.
Conroy described the visit as “an important milestone that will build confidence in our strategic partners that we have the workforce able to deliver AUKUS submarines, and also lays ground for more jobs for locals”.
Two Australian navy officers have been embedded on the submarine to gain a better understanding of how nuclear-powered submarines operate.
The Australian navy will also conduct tests of its Speartooth large underwater drone to see how it operates with the British submarine at sea.
Britain’s deputy high commissioner to Australia, Brian Jones, said the visit “sends a simple message of our water-tight commitment to AUKUS”.
“Our security as the UK is global, and we are committed to contributing to the security and stability wherever that might be,” he said.
“Our shared prosperity with Australia depends on that security … Deploying one of our most capable defence assets into this region reflects our commitment to work with our close partners to uphold peace, security and stability.”
According to the British navy, the Astute-class submarines “are the largest, most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy, combining world-leading sensors, design and weaponry in a versatile vessel”.
While nuclear-powered, these submarines do not carry nuclear weapons.
American nuclear-powered submarines made similar maintenance visits to Australia in 2024 and 2025, following the announcement of the AUKUS delivery plan in 2023.
The plan involves the US selling Australia at least three Virginia-class submarines while the UK and Australia partner on the development of a new class of submarine known as the SSN-AUKUS.
US senator Tim Kaine told this masthead last week he believed there was a “100 per cent chance” the US would provide the submarines to Australia as promised despite sluggish production rates at American shipyards.
Retired rear admiral Philip Mathias, a former director of nuclear policy with the UK Ministry of Defence, told this masthead last month he feared Australians were not adequately informed about how the troubles plaguing the British navy could scuttle the SSN-AUKUS plan.
“Whilst the United States may sell some [nuclear-powered submarines] to Australia, there is a high probability that the UK element of AUKUS will fail,” he said.
Mathias, who led a 2010 review of the UK Trident nuclear-weapons system, said: “It is clear that Australia has shown a great deal of naivety and did not conduct sufficient due diligence on the parlous state of the UK’s nuclear submarine program before signing up to AUKUS – and parting with billions of dollars, which it has already started to do.”
The head of the British navy, First Sea Lord Gwyn Jenkins, ordered an urgent 100-day drive to tackle systemic delays in the UK submarine program in October.
UK publication Defence Eye reported that the British navy “has struggled to put more than one of its five Astute boats to sea at a time” and that “for a number of months over the past two years, no Astute boats have been at sea”.
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.