Babcock Australasia (Babcock), Bechtel Australia and Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) have agreed to work together to identify opportunities to leverage their skills and experience to establish and support Australia’s conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine program.
It is the first group of companies in Australia to announce they are collaborating in this way to identify opportunities to support the required nuclear-powered submarine program from infrastructure build through to the end of life of the submarines.
It builds on the recent announcement Babcock and HII have combined forces in Australia to support nuclear-powered submarine capability under the AUKUS endeavour.
The three companies will work together to identify ways in which they can help to overcome short and long-term challenges required to deliver Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines including:
- Skilled workforce development
- Nuclear infrastructure design and build
- Submarine defueling and decommissioning
- Nuclear waste and material management
Collectively, Babcock, Bechtel Australia and HII have more than 150 years of experience supporting the UK, USA and Australian submarine fleets, as well as experience delivering complex, large infrastructure projects and critical workforce development.
Cavendish Nuclear, a wholly owned subsidiary of Babcock International Group, and Bechtel have an established track record of successfully working together at Sellafield, the UK’s oldest nuclear storage facility, and through its collaboration to support infrastructure upgrade work at Babcock’s Devonport site in Plymouth, UK.