HII and Babcock Partnership Nets AUKUS Contract

A joint venture between two defence primes has bagged an AUKUS contract to qualify Australian firms to support the manufacture of U.S. Virginia-class submarines and aircraft carriers.

H&B Defence – a joint venture between HII and Babcock – has won a A$9.6 million (roughly $6.2 million) contract to identify and qualify Australian suppliers with the requisite skills and products to enter the vessels’ supply chain via the Australian Submarine Supplier Qualification Pilot Program.

As per a recent Babcock press statement, the programme will specifically support the Virginia-class submarine and aircraft carrier build programmes at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in the U.S.

It stated: “H&B Defence will evaluate for competency across seven work packages in high demand to support the delivery of the first three nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS trilateral security partnership.”

The process of composing a shortlist of potential candidate firms will begin in May and this process will be followed by formal technical assessments and validations.

H&B Defence Board Chairman and HII Australia President Michael Lempke commented: “H&B Defence brings together the only two organisations worldwide with comprehensive expertise in every aspect of nuclear-powered submarine activities, and as such, is perfectly placed to support the acceleration and development of critical sovereign capability for the once-in-a-generation AUKUS submarine programme.”

• You can read more details on the Babcock International website