AUKUS Undersea Defense Act

AUKUS Undersea Defense Act

This bill authorizes the Department of Defense (DOD) to sell Australia up to two Virginia-class attack submarines under the Australia-United Kingdom-United States security partnership agreement (AUKUS). The bill authorizes DOD to transfer the submarines from existing Navy inventories. The bill also

• applies existing law to the transfer under this bill of special nuclear material related to submarine reactors,
• authorizes the Navy to determine the appropriate shipyard in any of the AUKUS countries for repair of U.S. Navy submarines,
• establishes a submarine security activities account to accept payments from Australia for non-nuclear related aspects of submarine security activities, and
• authorizes the President to transfer defense services to Australia to develop the Australian submarine industrial base for AUKUS activities.