HMS Anson, one of the Royal Navy's six Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, has moved from Gibraltar through the Red Sea to the west coast of Australia at the HMAS Stirling base on Garden Island off the city of Perth after 8,000 nautical miles of unaccompanied transit and without intermediate supplies. In Australia, the boat is to undergo its first shipyard overhaul at an Australian shipyard with the help of British technicians and support from the Australian Navy. In this way, all parties are to familiarise themselves with the technology, operation and procedures of this type of conventionally armed nuclear submarine.

As part of the AUKUS trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and the USA, the navy of the 5th continent, alongside the Royal Navy and the US Navy, is to receive, build and operate a new „SSN-AUKUS“ type of submarine in the long term in order to be compatible and interoperable with the British and American boats. The Royal Navy is also expected to receive a dozen boats of this type. To this end, Australia and the UK signed the Nuclear-Powered Submarine Partnership and Collaboration Treaty (Geelong Treaty) last year, in which both countries committed to bilateral defence cooperation in the AUCUS format for the next 50 years. The fact that the „Anson“ is currently His Majesty's only operational attack submarine emphasises the urgency of this cooperation.