South Australia's premier says nuclear submarines will be built in Adelaide under the AUKUS defence partnership, but he is not clear on whether all eight promised boats will be manufactured in the city.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is travelling to the United States next week for an announcement about the program, after meeting with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
International reports have said at least three and up to five of the submarines may be built overseas.
Speaking to ABC Radio Adelaide this morning, Premier Peter Malinauskas said he did not know if all eight submarines in the initial deal would be built at the submarine shipbuilding facility at Osborne.
"I have every confidence — and I've spoken to the prime minister about this on multiple occasion as recent as a couple of weeks ago — that we will be building nuclear submarines here in Adelaide and the Commonwealth will be monitoring its commitment in full," Mr Malinauskas said.
However, he said more than eight submarines may eventually be built in Adelaide, even if the first AUKUS ones are not built in the city.
"There is not an example anywhere in the world of any nuclear submarine production line starting and then stopping," he said.
"So once you start producing nuclear submarines, you keep producing nuclear submarines.
"For me, I hope, well my expectation, my hope is we end up producing a lot more than eight nuclear submarines here in South Australia."
Renewed fears of 'valley of death'
Adelaide was set to be the site for up to 12 French-designed submarines to be built before that plan was scrapped in 2021 by the previous federal government.
Under the new AUKUS agreement with the US and the UK, the new fleet of submarines will be delivered later than they would have been under the French program, prompting worries that people employed in the defence industry in Adelaide will leave for other sectors in the meantime.
Audra McCarthy, the chief executive of the Defence Teaming Centre, which aims to develop the Australian defence industry's capabilities, said a long gap before nuclear submarines were built in Australia would have a "significant impact" on Adelaide workers.
"If that's the case, that's where industry will really lose out," she said.
"The risk is we're going to have a major gap — a major valley of death — where we'll see industry just lose out, leave the sector, lose valuable skill-sets and knowledge that will be required to mobilise to build these platforms here in Australia eventually."
Foreign Minister Penny Wong would not confirm the reports that Australia may buy overseas-made submarines but said South Australians would not be disappointed by the plan.
"It's going to be enormously beneficial for South Australians," she said.
