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The United Kingdom has committed to sending rotational forces to Australia, with the Royal Navy’s Astute Class submarine HMS Anson reportedly expected to arrive at Submarine Rotational Force – West in Western Australia later this year.
Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine HMS Anson, the fifth of the new Astute Class submarines, arrived in Gibraltar earlier this month, with media site Navy Lookout reporting that it will later be deployed to Australia.
The deployment of the Royal Navy’s at-times stretched fleet of nuclear-powered submarines outside the UK’s economic and strategic zone in Europe has previously drawn criticism from the British public and lawmakers.
In addition, defence committees in the UK have previously questioned the importance of rotating an Astute Class SSN out of Australia instead of focusing on home defence.
UK Minister of State for Defence Readiness Luke Pollard, speaking to a Defence Committee on 2 December last year, confirmed that an Astute Class submarine would be deployed to Submarine Rotational Force – West at HMAS Stirling near Perth in 2026 for two main reasons.
“First, it is one year away because it is a 2026 rotation that we are aiming for … Secondly, why contribute to the rotational forces in Australia? It is directly because the optimal path for delivery of AUKUS sees the Australians gaining benefits from having the ability to understand how they dock, service, maintain and operate a nuclear submarine,” he said.
“The agreement that we have with our Australian and American friends is that there will be rotations between a UK Astute boat and the Virginia Class American submarine operating out of Western Australia. That will build the knowledge that the Australians will need to be able to operate those boats.
“In particular for the UK context, this is about understanding how they would operate a UK-designed and operated boat. Effectively, the SSN‑AUKUS will be a similar boat in terms of some of the design principles and operating style that you would see with an Astute Class submarine.
“That is why there is a strategic advantage and importance to continuing to provide an Astute boat in rotation with our American friends, to build capacity in the Australian system to deliver this. It also creates advantage in terms of the training opportunities that we can then bring back to the Euro-Atlantic area as well.
“It is entirely realistic for us (to send an Astute Class to Australia) … It is in the planning assumption for the Royal Navy that we will participate in the rotational forces. It is key to the delivery of the AUKUS program that we do so. There is advantage for us, but we are maintaining our ability to deliver the tasks that are asked of our submarine fleet at the moment.
“One of the reasons in the Strategic Defence Review (2025) that we set out our ambition to have up to 12 SSN-AUKUS submarines is because we see there being an increasing role for the hunter-killer class of submarines. That is why we have set out the importance of procuring more of them.”
