SAN DIEGO — At a historic meeting in San Diego, President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Australia announced Monday that they’re accelerating plans to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines to help the nations counter a military build-up by China in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia will initially buy three U.S. Virginia-class submarines that will be armed with conventional weapons but no nuclear missiles. Contracts for two more multi-billion-dollar subs can be added at a later date.
The submarines will be built with components from all three countries and will require the U.S. to share highly sensitive technology with the U.K. and Australia, which are long-standing NATO allies. The U.S. hasn’t made this kind of deal since it helped the U.K. with nuclear submarine development in 1958.
The U.S. and U.K. will begin placing their own subs at Australian ports on a rotating basis in 2027.
The first three of the new Australian subs will be constructed in the U.K. with the two others to follow in Australia. Construction will begin in the early 2030s because the U.K. needs to expand its industrial capacity and Australia needs to create the ability to build vessels of this magnitude.
The announcement was made as Biden arrived at Naval Base San Diego on Point Loma, where he will meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — first in private and then in a very rare and public joint address.
“For more than a century, our three nations have stood shoulder to shoulder, along with other allies and partners, to help sustain peace, stability, and prosperity around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific,” the world leaders said in a joint statement, ahead of their in-person remarks.
“We believe in a world that protects freedom and respects human rights, the rule of law, the independence of sovereign states, and the rules-based international order. The steps we are announcing today will help us to advance these mutually beneficial objectives in the decades to come.”
Air Force One touched down at 12:05 p.m. at nearby Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado. Biden was greeted on the tarmac by Naval Surface Forces commander Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener and Capt. Charles McKissick, commanding officer of Naval Base Coronado. He then left in the motorcade toward Point Loma with his daughter, Ashley Biden, and granddaughter, Natalie.
The motorcade passed small groups of protesters on the route, including a few supporters of former President Donald Trump and those protesting new border wall construction at Friendship Park. Other people filmed the procession along the city streets on their phones and waved.
Monday’s agreement stems from the so-called Australia-United Kingdom-United States, or AUKUS, pact, which was formed in late 2001 with the goal of collectively finding ways to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, a huge continental portion of Southeast Asia.
The pact is propelled by concerns that China could, at some point, invade Taiwan, sparking a global military crisis. The allies also say that the military bases China is building on artificial islands in the South China Sea could be used to thwart trade and the movement of ships and aircraft in that part of the world.
“This is a very, very big deal,” said Tai Ming Cheung, a China expert at UC San Diego.
“The U.S. has primarily — as we’ve seen with NATO — engaged with militaries in alliances but has not historically been willing to engage in industrial partnerships and sharing the most sensitive, technological secrets.”
He added that, “The U.S. has to have a more global footprint (militarily). It needs a lot more allies to help them in the Indo-Pacific.”
The U.S. currently has 71 submarines. China is rapidly building its own vessels and is expected to surpass the U.S. in the total number of subs by the end of this decade.
The deal “is being undertaken to help our closet allies (be) more powerful and capable of convincing Beijing that it’s no longer operating in a permissive security environment,” Charles Edel, a senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said at a press briefing.
The new security pact will be carried out in three phrases. The first is just getting underway as the U.S. begins to have American submarines visit bases in Australia. The U.K will do the same. Australian sailors will embed with the navies of both countries and study at schools specializing in nuclear-powered subs, the Biden administration said.
Australia currently has six Collins-class diesel submarines, which do not come close to matching the offensive and defensive capabilities of America’s various types of nuclear “boats,” including the four Los Angles-class vessels homeported in San Diego.
Those subs operate out of Naval Base San Diego in San Diego Bay.
The U.S. builds submarines in Virginia and Connecticut, which are at or near capacity, defense analysts say.
Biden will wrap up his visit to San Diego by attending a Democratic National Committee reception in Rancho Santa Fe on Monday evening. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and other local elected officials are expected to greet Biden at San Diego International Airport before he departs for that reception late in the afternoon.
On Tuesday the president is scheduled to visit Monterey Park, the site of a mass shooting that killed 11 people and injured nine.
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(Los Angeles Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.)
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