Why Provide Nuclear Submarines to Australia, But Not South Korea or Japan?
Australia’s strategic location makes its deployment of SSNs a much greater asset to broader Western interests than if other U.S. allies did the same.
By A. B. Abrams
September 22, 2021
The announcement on September 15 that the United States and United Kingdom would support a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) program to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines, the first of which will reportedly be launched by the end of 2039, represents one of the most significant developments of the year for East Asian security. Australia will become the seventh country to field such assets and the very first non-nuclear weapons state to do so, with U.S. reactors using weapons-grade uranium expected to power the new vessels.
The unprecedented deal has sparked concerns of a proliferation risk either through Australia’s eventual acquisition of nuclear arms or, more likely, through a sharing arrangement similar to what the U.S. currently has with several European allies. The latter possibility would see U.S. nuclear weapons, in this case cruise missiles, transferred to Australian service in the event of a major war, with the RAN training to use them until then, much as European states train to use U.S. nuclear gravity bombs today. All this remains speculation, however, and the possibility remains that Australia currently intends to field its attack submarines purely as conventionally armed assets for long-distance power projection.
Nuclear-powered attack submarines have the advantage over their diesel-electric counterparts of being able to cover longer distances at much higher speeds, and of having far higher endurances, which allow them to remain at sea longer without the need to refuel. This has made them particularly highly prized by Western powers, which are accustomed to fighting wars offensively and far from their shores. By some estimates nuclear-powered submarines will allow the Royal Australian Navy to maintain deployments in the South China Sea for seven times as long as diesel electric ones – 77 days at a time rather than 11.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/why-provide-nuclear-submarines-to-australia-but-not-south-korea-or-japan/
