Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Written Statement of 4 December 2023 on AUKUS Defence Partnership Update, HCWS89, how many more Australian sailors will be trained in the UK.

There are currently two Royal Australian Navy (RAN) personnel who have applied to go through the UK Nuclear General Course. With the Royal Australian Navy transitioning to Virginia class SSNs initially, in the early years more Australian sailors will be trained in the US than the UK, but the numbers in the UK can be expected to increase steadily in preparation for Australia receiving the first SSN-AUKUS in the early 2040s.