US Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven on the AUKUS agreement
Fox News
The U.S. Navy is struggling to build up an industrial submarine base after committing to a three-way partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom called AUKUS.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who serves as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, supports AUKUS, but is concerned how the U.S. is going to live up to its commitments to Australia. Liz Friden is a Pentagon producer based in Washington, D.C.
"The intelligence couldn't be clearer... China is preparing for a war and specifically for a war with the United States," Wicker said on the Senate floor. "The AUKUS deal will help prevent that war from happening."
Wicker has been ringing the alarm for years on how the U.S. needs to build up its industrial base. Wicker inserted $3.4 billion into the national security supplemental to jumpstart the ship building base.