Pat Conroy reveals why Australia wanted three used US Virginia-class submarines under AUKUS

A senior Albanese government minister has confirmed the United States recently changed its mind over which Virginia-class submarines should be transferred to Australia under AUKUS, but insists the new approach is what this country always wanted.

New details are emerging about which second-hand boats Australia will be buying from the United States as the Government scrambles to clean up what appeared to be a surprise recent announcement on a changed approach to the AUKUS “optimal pathway”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles and his American counterpart Pete Hegseth announced in Singapore over the weekend that Australia will now be acquiring three “in service” Virginia-class submarines starting in 2032, rather than two used and one brand-new boat.

Australia’s new Defence secretary Meghan Quinn on Tuesday night claimed buying only second-hand submarines was always the preference for AUKUS, before later clarifying to a Senate committee that the project could have “two constrained optimal pathways”.

Discussions around which type of submarines Australia would buy ramped up in the weeks before Mr Marles and Mr Hegseth met on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue, The West understands, but details about the change weren’t foreshadowed.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Wednesday that the Americans had changed their minds about what mixture of submarines they wanted in their fleet and re-examined the arrangement.

“This is better for us, and that’s why we asked for it originally,” he told The Nightly.

Notes taken by this masthead on a briefing about the optimal pathway when the detailed AUKUS deal was announced in San Diego in March 2023 show that, at that time, it was “still to be resolved whether (the) Virginias are second-hand or new”.

By November 2023, senior US Navy officer Vice Admiral Bill Houston was saying the arrangement would be to sell two in-service and one brand-new submarines to Australia.

Mr Conroy said Australia had consistently been pushing to get three boats that had been through their first significant maintenance.

“This is not like getting a new Tesla. Getting a brand-new Virginia is like getting the first Tesla ever made – it’s going to have problems,” he said.

“Every new platform has running issues that you have to resolve, and you can spend years doing that. So by getting all three subs six or seven years in, after their first major maintenance period, the US Navy’s taking the risk with them, they’ve ironed out all the kinks, and we’re getting them at their peak operating efficiency.”

Asked whether the announcement made by his colleague Richard Marles over the weekend was not handled well, Mr Conroy told the West: “I think it was handled well, I’m just providing more detail, which is my job.”

The Virginia-class submarines have an estimated lifetime of 33 years, and Australia has been assured that it will receive ones that have only just been through their first maintenance, with 25-27 years remaining.

That means the first one, due to be acquired in 2032, will be a submarine rolling off the production line this year.

The two defence establishments are now in the process of identifying exactly which boats Australia will receive.