WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Roger F. Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today took to the Senate floor to discuss his support for the historic Australia-U.K.-U.S. submarine agreement after a state visit from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

In his remarks, Senator Wicker praised the agreement and called upon the Biden administration to do more support investment in the domestic submarine industrial base.

“The AUKUS agreement is vital. But there is more work to do,” Wicker said. “We have yet to take the actions necessary to ensure that our industrial base can support both the United States and Australia. The basic fact is this: Our defense industrial base is not where it needs to be...Our first step is clear. We must enact into law the nearly $3.4 billion in submarine funding included in the defense supplemental Congress is considering. We need every bit of this funding increase and more.”

Specifically, the Mississippi senator pressed Biden to release a Department of Defense-directed study examining the submarine industrial base so that legislators can make the case for further investment to assist Australia and the Navy.

“The Biden administration commissioned the Submarine Industrial Base 2025 study to examine the best way to execute AUKUS. From what I understand, the study will document what we already know: We need significant additional funding to fulfill Australia's needs alongside those of our fleet...Until the elected members of the United States Senate and the House see this study, Congress cannot make its strongest argument for submarine investment,” Wicker said. “I led a letter signed by a bipartisan group of defense leaders asking the administration to send the study without delay – and this was a bipartisan letter. Friends from both sides of the aisle joined me on that. We are an equal part of the government, we have authorized this study, and for heaven’s sake, the elected Senators and representatives of the people need to see this.”

Wicker concluded by challenging the U.S. to take a lesson from its success during the Cold War and build an unparalleled submarine fleet.

“The strength of our free enterprise system, the clarity of the mission set by our federal leaders, and our collective appreciation of the Soviet threat gave us a focus, a singular focus. It allowed the American system to unleash our arsenal of democracy, and we prevented war with the Soviet Union by maintaining our naval supremacy. We will need to unleash that arsenal again,” Wicker said. “In the words of Rickover, ‘we shall let nothing deter us from building a nuclear Navy in the shortest possible time.’ Once more, we cannot let anything deter our skilled shipbuilders from cutting the steel and constructing the fleet that will safeguard America for a generation to come. We have submarines to build. Let’s get to work.”

Watch the full speech here or read it below. Read more about Senator Wicker’s recent work on national defense here.

I rise today to follow on with the importance of national defense. And in that regard, to speak specifically about the historic Australia-United Kingdom-United States agreement known as AUKUS.

This pact builds upon a bond forged in the First World War – between the United States and Australia – and made unshakable in the Second. That bond remains strong today as we face the greatest challenge of our lifetime, the Chinese Communist Party. And the senator from Alaska just spoke about the importance of building our defenses in the Indo-Pacific, and that is exactly what the AUKUS agreement is designed to address.

Our military leadership has made the stakes clear. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall recently said that “the intelligence couldn't be clearer...China is preparing for a war and specifically for a war with the United States." Now is the time for free nations across the Pacific to prepare for this sobering possibility. The AUKUS deal will help prevent it from happening.

Indeed, the AUKUS agreement is vital. But there is more work to do beyond that. We have yet to take the actions necessary to ensure that our industrial base can support both the United States and Australia.

The basic fact is this: Our defense industrial base is not where it needs to be.

Workforce shortages, a shrinking base of contractors, and insufficient resources have damaged our military readiness. Year after year, we have deferred maintenance on our surface ships – even as these ships are spending more days deployed and the fleet continues to shrink. Our capabilities are stalling as we hurtle toward a ‘window of maximum danger’ with the Chinese Communist Party.

The story for our submarines is no better. We are not prepared to fulfill our own Navy’s submarine construction and maintenance needs, let alone the prospective commitments in the critical AUKUS agreement.

Our Navy’s requirement is to have 66 attack submarines at 80 percent readiness. We currently have 49 attack submarines at 67 percent readiness. Let me say that again, Madam President: we need 66 attack submarines, we only have 49. We need them to be at 80 percent readiness, they are only at 67 percent.

We should be building 2 attack submarines a year, but we really are building 1.2. The demands of the AUKUS agreement would push this requirement higher – to above 2.3 attack submarines per year.

We should do that, but we can’t meet that challenge right now. To meet this challenge, our defense industry will need to handle more demand than ever before.

Since the so-called ‘peace dividend’ of the 1990s, we have closed two nuclear submarine repair yards and one construction yard. COVID-19 took a sledgehammer to an already-declining workforce. And our government is expecting that same inexperienced workforce to meet deadlines not just on our Virginia-class submarines but also the critically important, nuclear-armed Columbia-class submarines.

Our submarine fleet, just like our surface fleet, is still living off the Reagan-era defense buildup. Many vessels are in a deteriorating state and will soon need to be retired. But replacements are not waiting in the wings. The remaining ships will face longer deployments and fewer opportunities for maintenance. This is not a blueprint for American command of the seas. Nor does it put us in a position to provide our Australian friends the submarines which they need.

These cascading problems create what some have called a ‘death spiral’ of submarine construction and readiness. This spiral keeps us from hitting our shipbuilding targets. Moreover, today’s threats mean the current targets are actually too small.

China’s navy is now the world’s largest navy. Russia is increasing its nuclear submarine activity in the Atlantic. Keeping up with these challenges means raising our shipbuilding goals in the first place, then expanding our industrial capacity to meet them.

According to our acting Chief of Naval Operations, Virginia-class construction needs to nearly double. This is the person that we put in charge and will confirm to let us know about the readiness of our Navy. I am grateful for past congressional and executive branch efforts to fund this work. Otherwise, we would construct fewer than one Virginia-class submarine each year.

But even those funding increases have not matched our need. At the current rate, we will be at least nine submarines short by 2030.

Our defense policy cannot continue to hinge upon a hope and a prayer.

To make good on AUKUS and to stand by our friends in Australia, the administration and Congress need to make the investments necessary to improve submarine construction.

Our first step is clear. We must enact into law the nearly $3.4 billion in submarine funding included in the defense supplemental Congress is considering. We need every bit of this funding increase and more.

These funds will be dispersed throughout our industrial base, inside the United States, employing American workers. They will modernize our shipyards, accelerate maintenance on our existing submarine fleet, and put capital investments in place for future submarine components to be built in our country. They will put Americans to work, showing that economic development and national security go hand-in-hand.

This additional funding is a welcome first step. But we must do more to tell our allies and U.S. industry – and our adversaries – that we can meet the obligations of the AUKUS agreement without putting our own submarine fleet in jeopardy. We should sustain investments in our shipbuilders, public shipyards, and the nearly 16,000 suppliers – many of them, most of them small businesses – across the nation. This industry network supports American undersea supremacy and prevents conflict on the seas. But it needs more long-term investment to stay afloat.

We already have some sense of what this investment should look like. And I want to emphasize this, Madam President: the Biden administration commissioned the Submarine Industrial Base 2025 study to examine the best way to execute AUKUS. From what I understand, the study will document what we already know: We need significant additional funding to fulfill Australia's needs alongside those of our fleet.

But here’s the problem: we commissioned the study. But inexplicably, the Biden administration has yet to let Congress actually see the specifics of this study. Not members of the Democratic leadership, not members of the Republican leadership.

Until the elected members of the United States Senate and the House see this study, Congress cannot make its strongest argument for submarine investment. I led a letter signed by a bipartisan group of defense leaders asking the administration to send the study without delay – and this was a bipartisan letter. Friends from both sides of the aisle joined me on that. We are an equal part of the government, we have authorized this study, and for heaven’s sake, the elected Senators and representatives of the people need to see this.

If the president desires the same success for the AUKUS deal that many of us here in Congress do – and I believe he does, given the funding request included in the defense supplemental – then he ought to release the study promptly. They ought to release that study today, Madam President.

This study is just one element of strengthening AUKUS. Of course, the most crucial element is increasing overall American sea power. For years, I have cast a vision for restoring American maritime supremacy, following President Reagan’s own defense buildup. And again, this is not something that sprung from the brow of Senator Wicker. These are requirements given to us by the top Navy and Marine leadership across the nation, in particular. AUKUS ought to be a part of that buildup. This vision will require historic investment to ensure we have the necessary shipbuilding capacity.

This is not an easy task, but history suggests it would underwrite and protect American security for decades.

It will also include strengthening the U.S.-Australian alliance throughout the 21st century. This alliance is symbolized by Australian Prime Minister Albanese’s travel to Washington last week. I was honored to meet with several times during that visit. The bond between our two peoples is deep and abiding. It stood the test of World War II, and it will continue to stand as we confront the challenge of Xi Jinping’s Communist Chinese fleet. I can think of no action more emblematic of our bond than the AUKUS agreement, which, again, I fully support.

I know the Australians do. They told me last week. They show this by committing $3 billion to our industrial base. The best way to honor our special relationship would be to back AUKUS with funds of our own. Australia’s economy is a tenth the size of ours, and the United States should commit a proportional investment. The current plan does not get us there.

We have never pursued a defense technology partnership at this scale and this level of sophistication. But we have moments in our history to draw upon that inform our path forward.

Since its invention in the American midcentury, our nuclear navy has been second-to-none because we have never accepted anything less.

Our adversaries knew this. When Admiral Rickover – the founding father of our nuclear navy – travelled to discuss nuclear submarines with Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev and his aides, Admiral Rickover boasted, “although the United States is a democracy it can act fast…Can’t Russia act as fast as the United States?”

The answer was that Russia could not act as fast as we could. The strength of our free enterprise system, the clarity of the mission set by our federal leaders, and our collective appreciation of the Soviet threat gave us a focus, a singular focus.

It allowed the American system to unleash our arsenal of democracy, and we prevented war with the Soviet Union by maintaining our naval supremacy. We will need to unleash that arsenal again.

In the words of Rickover, “we shall let nothing deter us from building a nuclear Navy in the shortest possible time.” Once more, we cannot let anything deter our skilled shipbuilders from cutting the steel and constructing the fleet that will safeguard America for a generation to come.

We have submarines to build. Let’s get to work.