PERTH: In the control room of the American Virginia class attack submarine USS Minnesota, off the Western Australian coast, sonar operators adjust to the chatter of dolphins in new waters where the US submarine presence will soon grow significantly.
\nOn a training exercise from its home port in Guam, USS Minnesota is a forerunner to four Virginia class submarines that will be hosted at a Western Australian naval base from 2027, under the AUKUS partnership to transfer nuclear submarine capability to Australia.
\nCrew use video game joysticks to interrogate screen images from a photonic mast that has replaced a periscope. Life aboard can mean up to 100 days without seeing sunlight, and intermittent communication with families via email to maintain stealth.
\nCommanding officer Jeffrey Corneille says the Virginia class submarine is \u201cthe most advanced warship in the world.\u201d
\n\u201cIf someone wakes up and they say \u2018Is today the day?\u2019, we make sure that they say \u2018Maybe not\u2019,\u201d he says, describing its deterrent role.
\nAround 50-80 United States navy personnel will arrive by the middle of the year at Western Australia\u2019s HMAS Stirling base, which is undergoing an A$8 billion ($5 billion) upgrade to prepare for the \u201cSubmarine Rotational Force West,\u201d Australian officials have said.
\nIn two years, those numbers will swell to hundreds of US navy personnel and support crew.
\nThe location of HMAS Stirling, closer to Asia and the Indian Ocean than the US Pacific fleet headquarters in Hawaii, is strategically important to the United States, said Peter Dean, director of Foreign Policy and Defense at the United States Studies Center at the University of Sydney.
\n\u201cDefending the Indian Ocean against rising Chinese capabilities and power is important,\u201d he said.
\nThe Virginia submarine program has been exempted from Pentagon budget cuts as the Trump administration focuses less on the Middle East and Europe, and more on the Indo Pacific, he said.
\nThe Trump administration\u2019s number three Pentagon official, Elbridge Colby, told a US Senate confirmation hearing this month the attack submarines are \u201cabsolutely essential\u201d for making the defense of Taiwan viable, and production rates must be lifted to first meet US needs and also to fulfill its obligations to sell submarines to Australia under the AUKUS pact.
\nThe USS Minnesota moved its home port from Hawaii to the US Pacific territory of Guam, closer to Taiwan and the only forward-deployed US submarine base, in November.
\nA Chinese navy task group that circumnavigated Australia in February and March, holding unprecedented live fire drills off the east coast that disrupted commercial airlines, before passing Western Australia to coincide with the USS Minnesota\u2019s port call and heading into the Indian Ocean, has highlighted China\u2019s ambition to operate more frequently in Australia\u2019s neighborhood, Australian officials said.
\nUnder AUKUS, Australia\u2019s most expensive defense project, Australia will buy two used Virginia class submarines next decade, and build a new class of nuclear powered submarine with Britain, to replace its aging diesel powered fleet.
\nIn preparation, there are 115 Australians in the US nuclear navy training pipeline or on Virginia submarines, plus 130 training for nuclear submarine maintenance at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, US navy officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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