US submarine tender, USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), arrives for its seventh port visit to HMAS Stirling ahead of the joint Submarine Tender Maintenance Period exercise due to take place over the coming weeks. Credit: DVIDS.

A mixed crew of US Navy and Royal Australia Navy (RAN) personnel will take part in a Submarine Tender Maintenance Period (STMP) in the coming weeks, according to a statement from US Indo-Pacific Command on 19 August 2024.

A submarine tender – a depot ship that supports and supplies submarines – USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) pulled into HMAS Stirling, a naval base on Garden Island, in the West coast of the country, on 16 August.

Crucially, part of the STMP will see Australian technicians perform maintenance on a US Navy nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine (SSN) that is scheduled to arrive for a port visit in that time.

The task is another opportunity in which the RAN will prepare to manage its own conventionally armed SSN fleet from the 2040s under the asupices of the first pillar initiative of the trilateral AUKUS alliance.

This next step comes just after US President Joe Biden gave his approval for the transfer of naval nuclear systems to the commonwealth. More recently, the three nations also agreed to reduce the impact of their respective export controls with new exemptions.

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More than 30 Australian sailors will execute the majority of planned maintenance work under the supervision of US personnel.

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Work will include the replacement of a mast in the submarine’s sail and a key hydraulic valve, along with the simulated removal of a large pump weighing more than 3,500 pounds from within the boat.

“Our knowledge exchange with the RAN Fleet Support Unit [FSU] since January has been exceptionally productive,” said Captain Brent Spillner, commanding officer of the Emory S. Land.

“Within weeks they were working shoulder-to-shoulder with US technicians on real submarine repairs, and for the last six weeks we’ve had a team of US sailors embedded in the FSU West workshops at HMAS Stirling. We’re learning as much from them as they are from us, and we have Australian sailors and officers in the key management positions for the STMP.”

Australia operates on a ‘two-ocean basing plan’ introduced in 1987 whereby the service maintains a navl presence in both the Indian ocean, from FSU West, and the Pacific Ocean from FSU East – based from HMAS Kuttabul.

Up to half of the RAN’s surface and submarine fleet is based permanently in Western Australia.

Just after the Emory S. Land arrived in Western Australia, the British government meanwhile announced that it had appointed a new AUKUS adviser to compile a report, due to be published in October, that will establish UK progress against the original AUKUS ambition so far, identify any barriers to success, and how to unlock further areas of opportunity to maximise the potential of AUKUS.