Trump said the deal was “full steam ahead” when he met with Albanese last month, although Navy Secretary John Phelan said some “ambiguity” remained about parts of the deal, and Albanese later acknowledged there would be changes but would not say what they were.
Australia is due to pay another $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) towards the US submarine industrial base before the end of this year to improve the production rate, which has lagged at about 1.2 boats a year. Experts say it must increase to about two boats a year for the US to be in a position to fulfil its AUKUS commitments.
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Velez-Green, who has been nominated to be Colby’s deputy, was being questioned by Mississippi Republican senator Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who complained that he was not consulted about the lengthy AUKUS review, “which upset out friends in Australia and cast doubt on whether we were committed to this agreement”.
The hearing came two days after Wicker and other Republican senators vented frustration with the Pentagon policy unit over decisions on AUKUS, and other matters, which they said were at odds with Trump’s priorities.
However, others defended Colby and the Pentagon policy team from “anonymous and misleading” criticism. Missouri Republican senator Eric Schmitt said the resistance to Colby was coming from people invested in “maintaining a foreign policy status quo that has repeatedly failed the American people”.
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