An Adelaide shipyard will receive $3.9 billion to train workers in building AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Sunday the Osborne shipyard would receive the multi-billion dollar cash injection as a ‘downpayment’ for the facility, with the total cost forecasted to be around $30 billion when it is completed in 2040.
It will be identical to another shipyard building submarines in the UK.
Under the AUKUS agreement, the Australian navy will acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines over the next decade from the United States and Britain.
The federal government says around 10,000 skilled workers will be required to build the vessels.
‘This is a driver of not just of national security and how we’re going to defend our nation into the future,’ Albanese said at a press conference on Sunday.
‘It’s also a driver of our economic prosperity, as well as making such an enormous difference to some of the apprentices that we’ve met here today.’
Construction has already started on a fabrication area worth $5 billion and a Skills and Training Academy worth $500 million.
More to come.
Australia will acquire US-built Virginia-class nuclear submarines under the AUKUS agreement
