Build, sustain, integrate: the imperative for Australia’s submarine enterprise

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David Eyles

Defence Market Director, Sydney, Australia contact form

John McGlynn

Project Delivery Director, Bristol, UK contact form

A clear, deliverable plan with a well-defined ecosystem has never been more critical for reinforcing confidence in Australia’s contribution to the ambitious AUKUS programme. The trilateral agreement offers unprecedented opportunity, enabling knowledge sharing from the UK, where lessons in design, build, planning and operations can inform Australia’s ‘clean slate’.

The stakes are well known. Australia starts from an unusual position in the nuclear-powered submarine landscape without an established civil nuclear programme, and AUKUS represents the largest defence undertaking in the country’s history, with A$368 billion invested over three decades.

Learning from the past, the Government's submarine industry strategy¹ acknowledges the Collins class challenges: inadequate focus on sustainment during the build phase.

This framing, while accurate, may be too narrow. The real issue was treating build and sustainment as distinct phases rather than a continuous capability system. The challenge - and opportunity - on the horizon extends beyond learning from previous submarine programmes. AUKUS will hinge on creating an integrated ecosystem where infrastructure, workforce, and operational capability evolve as one from programme inception.

Unlike conventional platforms, nuclear-powered submarines require infrastructure which adapts over decades to meet evolving operational demands, regulatory requirements, and technological advances. Australia's transformation reflects this: it must construct new facilities, upgrade existing shipyards, develop a specialised sovereign workforce, and integrate into trilateral supply chains.

Sovereign workforce

The UK's Strategic Defence Review² reinforces the transformative potential to the workforce and the integration imperative. The review confirms plans to grow the UK Royal Navy's nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet to up to 12 SSN-AUKUS vessels, creating more than 21,000 jobs at UK sites and an additional 7,000 skilled roles; similar to Australia's plan for 20,000 submarine-related positions.

Creating thousands of jobs requires skills development within purpose-built environments that mirror operational realities. The workforce and the infrastructure must grow together, each informing and enabling the other.

Yet, nuclear-powered submarine expertise cannot be developed through a conventional approach. The requisite knowledge spans decades of operational experience, regulatory evolution, and technological advancement. Experiences at UK facilities offer valuable lessons, such as Devonport Royal Dockyard, where AtkinsRéalis has provided engineering and nuclear expertise to support Babcock International as it delivers complex, major upgrades.

The future-proofing 'leftward shift'

Australia's ambitions require what industry terms a 'left shift' – embedding future operational outcomes in initial planning. Safety requirements, operational protocols, maintenance procedures, and assurance frameworks must all contribute to master-planning, de-risking the programme from incompatibilities downstream.

This presents unique challenges. Initiating infrastructure development may precede finalised submarine designs or regulatory requirements, increasing risk of misalignment. Facilities planned today in Adelaide for construction and Henderson for maintenance must meet multi-decade operational and strategic objectives that continue evolving.

Moreover, with platform specifications, nuclear safety standards, and regulations continuing to develop, the programme must remain sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing scenarios. This demands infrastructure designed for continuous adaptation rather than fixed specifications.

Decades of nuclear submarine infrastructure evolution in the UK demonstrate how adaptive design enables progression without wholesale reconstruction. This institutional knowledge becomes critical as Australia develops its own sovereign capacity whilst contributing to trilateral capability.

The integration dividend

The UK SDR said AUKUS must be developed as an “exemplar of capability collaboration.” Indeed, Australia's greenfield advantage creates unprecedented opportunity for exemplar integrated project delivery methodologies too.

The programme can embed adaptive design principles from inception rather than retrofitting existing facilities, demonstrating how infrastructure, workforce, and operational capability can evolve together. Success lies not in individual platform capabilities, but in delivery frameworks that eliminate traditional build-versus-sustain handover risk.

¹ Australia's AUKUS Submarine Industry Strategy

² Strategic Defence Review 2025

John McGlynn is a Project Delivery Director at AtkinsRéalis UK & Ireland and David Eyles is Defence Market Director at AtkinsRéalis Australia. This article was originally published in Australian Defence Magazine in July 2025.