WASHINGTON– U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee recently joined his Armed Services colleagues Senators Tim Kaine, D-Va., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. on a letter to President Biden requesting an immediate update on the administration’s plans to implement the landmark AUKUS agreement.  

Specifically, the Senators reaffirmed their commitment to AUKUS and expressed their eagerness to receive a vital industrial base study from the administration. The study analyzes what kind of additional investment in the domestic submarine industrial base would be required to advance the agreement in the most effective fashion. 

The study, which was conducted by the Department of Defense’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, would prove pivotal to informing Congress’ future plans for supporting the AUKUS agreement. The Senators asked for an update on the study no later than October 31. 

“It is critical that the administration articulate a detailed plan for instituting necessary enhancements to the submarine industrial base,” the senators wrote. “This is a crucial first step in posturing the United States to effectively address existing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, and essential for fully realizing the potential of the AUKUS agreement.” 

Read the letter in full here or below. 

October 12, 2023 

President Joe Biden 

The White House 

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Washington, D.C. 20500 

Dear President Biden, 

We write to express our strong support for advancing the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) partnership. The collaboration across the U.S. government over the last several months has enabled significant progress in the development of the legal authorities necessary for AUKUS implementation, and we are eager to see those authorities be signed into law this year.  

To realize the full potential of AUKUS, the American defense industrial base will require significant resources to improve submarine construction and maintenance rates. The volume of submarine tonnage the industrial base must produce to meet the Navy’s own requirements and fully implement the AUKUS agreement will require historic and sustained investments in the submarine workforce and supplier network. To achieve such capacity, Congress must have a comprehensive understanding of the current status of the submarine industrial base as well as the future resource investments necessary to meet our nation’s requirements. 

We understand that a Submarine Industrial Base 2025 (SIB-25) study from the U.S. Navy and the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation is complete, but that the administration does not plan to share its findings with Congress until the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2025 is released, sometime early next year. However, understanding the scope of the generational investment required for the SIB’s viability is critical for development of AUKUS-authorizing legislation this year and for robust Congressional oversight as the United States charts the future course of AUKUS. Therefore, we ask the administration to provide the cost estimates contained within the SIB-25 study to Congress no later than October 31, 2023, to inform Congressional consideration of any AUKUS-associated legislation. 

It is critical that the administration articulate a detailed plan for instituting necessary enhancements to the submarine industrial base. This is a crucial first step in posturing the United States to effectively address existing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, and essential for fully realizing the potential of the AUKUS agreement. 

Sincerely,