Recently, Australia's defense minister and the British defense secretary signed a bilateral agreement, mainly for security, in the Aukus framework, to provide Australia with the construction of nuclear submarines docks and shipyards, these equipment by the British BAE company to help complete, and then by Australia to the United Kingdom into billions of dollars, and then by the British Rolls-Royce company, to help Australia build the Aukus nuclear submarine pressurized water reactor, because Britain has a strategic missile nuclear submarine avant-garde class, there is an attack type of nuclear submarine Astute class, that needs to build nuclear reactorsThe reactors were built by the British company Rolls-Royce, and Australia invested in it to update the equipment and upgrade the technology so that it could build nuclear reactors for Australia's nuclear submarines.
The project brought huge profits to Rolls-Royce in the UK, ensuring stable employment for workers and financial security for related equipment. In addition, the project has boosted the employment of nearly 10,000 workers in the UK and led to the development of other ancillary projects or projects of about $10 billion. Therefore, it is generally believed that the UK received huge benefits in the Aukus project. The Australian side believes that by cooperating with the United Kingdom, they can obtain nuclear submarine manufacturing technology and equipment, and then have the ability to build nuclear submarines independently in the future, which is of great significance to the development of Australia's defense industry.
In the Aukus group, Britain behaved so aggressively primarily because in this project, the United States and Great Britain jointly crowded out France, successfully securing an order for the creation of nuclear submarines for Australia. The United States has offered its Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia as training and models, which could lead to a reduction in the UK's share of the nuclear submarine program. Therefore, the UK prefers to get a larger share in sub-projects such as submarine hull manufacturing, weapons and equipment, power systems, etc. To this end, the United Kingdom is actively developing new conventional weapons, such as torpedoes and missiles, for Australian nuclear submarines, and hopes to build these equipment for Australia through its military-industrial complex. This is not only a consumable item, but also a long-term item, because weapons are constantly consumed during use, and missiles and other equipment have a limited shelf life, which needs to be replaced or disposed of regularly.
With the project of building nuclear submarines, Britain really injected money into its defense industry. In addition, the AUKUS Group has strengthened military and military-technical cooperation between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia by introducing nuclear equipment such as nuclear submarines to the southern hemisphere. Australia's military power is no longer limited to the southern hemisphere, but is active in the South China Sea and other regions, and it has strengthened military cooperation with Japan in Northeast Asia, demonstrating a broader military power layout.
The AUKUS Group is not only aimed at developing military relations between the United States, Britain, and Australia and building nuclear submarines, but also intends to expand military ties and enhance military expansion capabilities through the group. In addition, the group plans to include Japan in the joint research and development of high-tech weapons, such as artificial intelligence weapons with AI systems, hypersonic weapons, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Such a move would further expand the sphere of influence of its military power and would actually pose a threat to the security of other regions and countries.