United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated on Monday, while speaking onboard Air Force One, that Australia will be purchasing three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from Washington, "with an option to buy two more."
Sullivan explained that the US-United Kingdom-Australia trilateral meeting will lay out a "multiphase process that begins over the next few years." The training of Australian sailors, engineers, technicians and other personnel will commence immediately, he said.
In the 2020s there will be "regular rotational deployment of US and UK subs in Australia," and in 2030s, there will be the delivery of the aforementioned subs from the US to Australia, Sullivan noted. "The final phase will be the actual deployment of a new conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine," the US official shared.
