US wants to know how Australia would use subs if America goes to war
A senior US defence official, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said the Trump administration wanted a clear idea of how Australia would deploy the nuclear-powered boats in the event of a contingency, though this was much broader than conflict with China over Taiwan.
'There's a conversation about command structure, about alignment of assets. We would want, in any scenario, a clear sense of what we can expect from Australia,' he told this masthead in an interview.
'There seems to be a hyper-emphasis on Taiwan in public reporting. But this is broader than any one particular contingency. It is about how we can reasonably expect these kinds of critical assets to be allocated across different scenarios.'
This masthead can also reveal that the Pentagon's AUKUS review focuses on four areas: command structure, the US's capacity to produce the boats, posture (positioning) of the assets and Australian defence spending.
Meanwhile, US Undersecretary of Defence Elbridge Colby, who is heading the review, publicly confirmed reports that the US wanted its allies such as Australia and Japan to 'step up' and make commitments about how they would act in the event of a conflict.
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Colby said the Pentagon was implementing US President Donald Trump's commonsense agenda of restoring deterrence and achieving peace through strength.
'That includes by urging allies to step up their defence spending and other efforts related to our collective defence,' he said, noting it applied in both Europe and Asia.
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