MT. PLEASANT, South Carolina, April 18, 2025 – The first eight enlisted sailors and five additional officers from the Royal Australian Navy graduated from the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU) Charleston as part of the Australia, United Kingdom, United States (AUKUS) trilateral security partnership.
The graduates, who trained alongside U.S. Navy personnel, began the rigorous naval nuclear power training pipeline in October 2024. The curriculum encompassed a wide range of critical subjects, including mathematics, nuclear physics, reactor principles, and nuclear reactor technology. This achievement marks an important step in Australia's development of a sovereign, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine (SSN)...
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (Apr. 3, 2025) – Director of the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program Adm. Bill Houston, who completed his Submarine Command Course training on Collins-class submarine HMAS Rankin in 2007, and Chief of the Royal Australian Navy Vice Adm. Mark Hammond, a 2003 graduate of the U.S. Navy Submarine Command Course, embarked USS Montana (SSN 794) for a combined operational familiarization opportunity at sea,...
