The Australian Government will invest an additional AU$4.6 billion (US$3.2 billion) for the expansion of submarine construction facilities in Osborne in South Australia.
The government had already committed an investment of AU$3.9 billion (US$2.7 billion) into the Osborne facilities in February of this year. According to South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, the submarine yard will have 10 times the floor area of the existing frigate construction facilities co-located there.
The new buildings at the expanded facility are scheduled to be completed within 12 months. This will then allow cutting of the first steel for the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) first locally built nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) to commence before the end of the decade.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said that around 50 distinct buildings will be put up at the 100-hectare-plus facility.
The announcement of the additional investment came as the AUKUS submarine programme itself is under a five-month independent review scheduled to be completed this October.
Australia's former environment minister Peter Garrett is leading the independent inquiry into the AU$368 billion (US$262 billion) submarine programme.
Under the programme, which was itself recently amended, the United States will supply Australia with three in-service US Navy Virginia-class SSNs instead of the original arrangement of one newbuild and two in-service Virginias. The three Virginia-class boats would be complemented by SSN-AUKUS submarines, which are being developed jointly by Australia and the UK and are scheduled to become operational with the RAN in the 2040s.
Mr Garrett had called the AUKUS submarine programme the "most expensive" defence investment made by Australia and criticised the fact that the country's parliament and the Australian people have not been given an opportunity to, "question, debate and decide," in relation to the programme.