As of Monday afternoon (Tuesday morning in Australia), US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said the watercraft likely had somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours of oxygen available to the passengers. The expedition was being run by US company OceanGate as part of an eight-day trip with guests paying US$250,000 per head to visit the wreck site. The vessel was reported overdue at 9.13pm local time on Sunday (12.13pm AEST, Monday). The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Īn extensive search and rescue operation is underway to locate a commercial submersible that went missing during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck.Īccording to the US Coast Guard, contact with the submersible was lost about one hour and 45 minutes into the dive, with five people onboard. For more coverage of the submersible, see “ What Happened to Imploded Titanic Tourist Sub? ” For more on the deep-sea environment where the debris was discovered, read “ See How Crushing Pressures Increase in the Ocean’s Depths.” OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owns the vehicle, declared that the Titan and all five people onboard were lost. Coast Guard announced that a remotely operated vehicle found debris from the Titan submersible. The legislative proposal notes that Australian funds “would be applied to recruitment, training, incentivizing, and retention of key skilled trades, engineering and planning personnel in both nuclear and non-nuclear disciplines that are required by the additional AUKUS workload.Editor’s Note (6/22/23) : On June 22 the U.S. But the company needs to hire 5,750 new workers this year, to manage attrition and to help grow the workforce to about 22,000 to handle the increased workload. The company currently employs more than 19,000 people, after hiring 3,700 new workers in 2022, according to local newspaper The Day. Austal expects it will need 1,000 new hires in Mobile to staff that facility.Īt Electric Boat, the prime contractor for the Virginia- and Columbia-class submarine programs, the hiring need will be even greater. Courtney helped secure $541 million in submarine supplier development and $207 million in workforce development initiatives as part of the FY 23 government funding bill.Īustal USA, the American subsidiary of Australia-based Austal, plans to open a new facility at its shipyard in Mobile, Alabama to begin construction on nuclear submarine modules for General Dynamics’ Electric Boat shipyard in Connecticut, which produces both Virginia and Columbia-class submarines. submarine industrial base as the Navy ultimately aims to build two Virginia-class and one Columbia-class submarines per year. Australian monies would also be used for “advance purchasing of components and materials that are known to be replacement items for submarine overhauls” and “outsourcing less complex sustainment work to local contractors.”Ĭongress is also making its own investments to expand the U.S. The Pentagon states in the legislative proposal that those funds would be used to “add a significant number of trade workers” that will help address “the significant overhaul backlog” for the Virginia-class submarine. This year’s proposal, which the Pentagon hopes will become part of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, asks that Congress approve just two of those submarines “without a deadline to consummate the transfers and without specifying the specific vessels to be transferred.” “Importantly, the proposals spell out a clear path forward to facilitate the transfer of Virginia-class submarines to Australia while ensuring we have the necessary authorities to accept the Australian Government’s investments to enhance our submarine industrial base capacity and provide training for Australian personnel.”ĪUKUS stipulates that Australia will buy at least three and as many as five Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s as part of phase two of the agreement, giving Congress more than a decade to authorize the sale. “The Department of Defense’s legislative proposals are the latest example of President Biden’s commitment to fulfilling the AUKUS agreement,” said Courtney. Joe Courtney of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee’s sea power panel, praised the proposals in a statement to Defense News, saying “I look forward to working with all my colleagues in Congress to fulfill these goals.”
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