XPost: aus.politics, comp.os.linux.advocacy, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: nuke@china.ca   
      
   SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia said on Wednesday it would invest billions of   
   dollars over the next two decades to expand a shipyard in Western   
   Australia that would become the maintenance hub for its nuclear-powered   
   AUKUS submarine fleet.   
      
   The government will make an initial investment of A$127 million ($85   
   million) over three years to upgrade facilities at the Henderson shipyard   
   near Perth, Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a statement.   
      
   "The Defence Precinct at Henderson will optimise Australia's shipbuilding   
   and sustainment industry while supporting continuous naval shipbuilding in   
   Western Australia and Australia's nuclear-powered submarine pathway,"   
   Marles said.   
      
   The facility will also build the new landing craft for the Australian army   
   and the new general-purpose frigates for the navy, he said.   
      
   The shipyard "will underpin tens of billions of dollars of investment in   
   defence capabilities" over the next 20 years and create about 10,000 local   
   jobs, Marles said.   
      
   The AUKUS defence pact signed in 2021 between Australia, Britain and the   
   U.S. will see Australia buy up to five nuclear-powered submarines from   
   Washington in the early 2030s before jointly building and operating a new   
   class, SSN-AUKUS, with Britain, roughly a decade later.   
      
   AUKUS will be the first time Washington has shared nuclear-propulsion   
   technology since it did so with Britain in the 1950s though the submarines   
   would not be nuclear armed. The deal is expected to cost Australia up to   
   about A$368 billion ($245.8 billion) by 2055, according to government   
   estimates.   
      
   ($1 = 1.4975 Australian dollars)   
      
   https://www.reuters.com/   
      
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