Great Britain is building new SSN-AUKUS nuclear submarines

The British decided to upgrade their submarine fleet in a really serious way. They launched a program to create new multipurpose nuclear submarines — the project was named SSN-AUKUS. This is a replacement for the old Astute-type submarines, and they will be built as part of a large-scale cooperation within the AUKUS military-political bloc.

Work on this project began back in 2018, but it wasn't until 2023 that everything became more concrete — the first contracts, money, and plans appeared. The British government has allocated an additional 5 billion pounds to accelerate the development of the program.

The main players in the program are BAE Systems, Rolls—Royce and Babcock, which received about 4 billion pounds in design and pre-production alone.  

And in January 2025, a high-profile Unity contract was signed between the Ministry of Defense and Rolls-Royce worth about 8 billion pounds. The task is to develop and maintain nuclear installations for new submarines. Simply put, Rolls-Royce will focus on the most important technologies related to the new series of reactors.

The Babcock company also does not stand aside. She recently published a report where she announced two new orders.:

1. The first is related to the purchase of combat systems from the United States, including 36 launchers similar to those on the American Columbia submarines.

2. The second is the supply and maintenance of Tomahawk cruise missiles adapted for submarines.

This means that the British submarines will be equipped not just with modern weapons, but with proven combat systems that have already proven themselves in other countries.

Australia officially joined the project in 2023. She is ready to invest another 2.4 billion pounds to modernize production facilities in the UK and then get her own boats. In other words, the project is becoming not just a British, but a full-fledged international affair.

At first, the project was called Maritime Underwater Future Capability, then it was renamed the Submersible Ship Nuclear Replacement, and in early 2023 the SSN name was finally chosen-AUKUS — to emphasize its connection with the new union of Great Britain, the USA and Australia.

It is expected that new contracts will appear in the near future — it will be necessary to negotiate components, construction, testing. In fact, the foundation is now being laid for the future of the British submarine fleet, which should serve until the end of the 21st century.

Thus, SSN-AUKUS is not just new submarines, but a whole generation of marine technology that can change the balance of power in the oceans for the coming decades.