February 02, 2026

Congressional Support Key for Sustaining Momentum of U.S., UK, Australia Partnership

By: Lisa Curtis and Ryan Claffey

This article was originally published on The Hill.

The fiscal 2026 defense appropriations bill which will be voted on by the House this week allocates $27.2 billion for naval shipbuilding, including funding for one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class submarines. In addition, the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law last December, includes language to streamline defense industrial base collaboration and facilitate co-production of Virginia-class submarines among the United States, Australia and the UK. Both pieces of legislation represent essential steps toward “supercharging” the U.S. defense industrial base as called for in the National Defense Strategy published last week.

AUKUS is considered a test case for high-end burden sharing, in which the United States is no longer the sole global security supplier and partners contribute substantively to defense production.

Following a Government Accountability Office report published in February of last year that highlighted a significant shortfall in U.S. submarine production, the Department of Defense announced in June that it would review AUKUS, raising concerns in Canberra and London that the Trump administration might decide to pull back from the initiative. However, President Donald Trump’s declaration in October 2025 that Washington was moving “full steam ahead with AUKUS” largely laid to rest these worries. Still, it is necessary for Congress to continue to play its part in supporting implementation of this historic initiative that will help the United States establish combat-credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.

Read the full article on The Hill.

More from CNAS

View All Reports View All Articles & Multimedia