Shoebridge, Sen David

Senator SHOEBRIDGE: One of the reasons I ask is, in the US, the head of the Pacific command, in a speech, indicated that they expected up to almost 10 per cent of the US nuclear submarine workforce—by that, I mean deployed on nuclear submarines—would come from Australia as a result of the AUKUS arrangement. I wondered where we were on that arc. Vice Adm. Hammond : At present there are more than 50 Australians serving on US fast-attack submarines based out of Pearl Harbor. We won't go into precise numbers, but, suffice to say, that number is growing. There are more than 100 or so training in the United States. We'll continue to invest in those training development opportunities as we prepare for the implementation of the Optimal Pathway.