The federal government is making a $12bn “downpayment” on a shipbuilding facility in Western Australia to prepare it for future nuclear-powered submarines.

The Henderson defence precinct will cost $25bn over a decade and will be used to build surface vessels and to dock and sustain submarines including those to be delivered under the Aukus agreement.

Under the $368bn Aukus agreement with the US and the United Kingdom, Australia will buy at least three Virginia-class submarines from the US and build at least three new ones in South Australia.

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The Pentagon is reviewing the arrangement amid “ very serious concerns ” about it, but the Washington Post reported on Saturday that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has told the defence minister, Ric

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