Babcock, Bechtel and HII to support AUKUS submarine program

In an AUKUS-first collaboration, Babcock Australasia, Bechtel Australia and HII have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish and support Australia’s conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine program.

It is the first group of companies in Australia to announce they are collaborating in this way to identify opportunities to support the required nuclear-powered submarine program from infrastructure build through to the end of life of the submarines.

It builds on the recent announcement Babcock and HII have combined forces in Australia to support nuclear-powered submarine capability under the AUKUS endeavour.

The three companies will work together to identify ways in which they can help to overcome short and long-term challenges required to deliver Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines including:

• Skilled workforce development
• Nuclear infrastructure design and build
• Submarine defueling and decommissioning
• Nuclear waste and material management.

“We believe this relationship is critical to ensure the nation has the capability, expertise and skilled workforce it needs to operate, manage and ultimately dispose of nuclear-powered submarines from sovereign bases,” Babcock Australasia CEO Andrew Cridland said.

“Skilled workforce development is one of the biggest challenges that the AUKUS enterprise must overcome, and it is great to see industry working together and in close concert with Australian universities and state and federal governments to find ways to help close the future skills gap,” Bechtel Australia Public Infrastructure Managing Director Richard Freer stated.

• AUKUS partners test uncrewed undersea tech in Australia
• AUKUS Workforce Alliance in the making