Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the AUKUS agreement, whether the submarines will be armed with (a) nuclear capable and (b) non-nuclear capable missiles.
The first initiative under AUKUS is collaboration on future nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. A trilateral 18-month programme of work is underway to identify the optimum way to deliver this new capability to the Royal Australian Navy, so it is too early to comment on what conventional armaments the future submarines may carry. However, Australia has been clear that it does not – and will not – seek nuclear weapons.