Australia's pending purchase of 3 to 5 Virginias for the 2030s comes with extra obligations and conditions:
- the sale must be approved by the US Congress, noting the US lower house, the House of Representatives, is already Republican dominated. The US Navy, long opposed to the sale, may persuade Congress to block the sale on sensitive technology transfer grounds - as Congress did with the USAF F-22 stealth fighter. "The F-22 cannot be exported under US federal law to protect its stealth technology and classified features."
- Australian must pay the odd A$30 Billion (2030s inflated) total cost of 3 Virginia's
- Australia must pay (say) an additional A$30 Billion required to improve the US submarine industrial base (for the benefit of the US Navy and to employ additional American submarine-building workers).
- the US sees the deal as an additional way of tying Australia to the US commanded alliance.
The points above are backed by the backed up by the following:
On March 14, 2023, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained to the US “Press Gaggle”
"...the delivery of three Virginia-class subs from the United States to Australia over the course of the 2030s, with the possibility of going up to five if that is needed.
…And I would reinforce that for that Virginia-class sale to Australia, the Australians are not only paying for those boats, they are also making a proportional contribution to the U.S. submarine industrial base — to lift it so that we can accelerate the production and accelerate the ongoing maintenance of Virginia-class submarines over the course of the years ahead.
…AUKUS represents, for Australia, not just a long-term investment in nuclear-powered submarines, but a long-term investment in its alliance with the United States of America.
This is a decades-long — maybe a century-long commitment. And it reinforces the fundamental view, we believe, in Canberra that the United States and Australia, standing shoulder to shoulder for the purposes of safeguarding peace and stability — not to provoke, not to go try to fight wars, but rather to deter conflict and to promote peace and stability — that Australia is stepping up to make that bet."