Republicans lash out at Pentagon officials over treatment of Australia

Washington: Republican frustration with top personnel at the Pentagon has boiled over during a public hearing on Capitol Hill, with anger about the treatment of Australia and the AUKUS agreement a key part of the dispute.

Three Republicans on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee voiced concerns about how the policy team inside the Pentagon, led by undersecretary of war Elbridge Colby, has appeared to deviate from President Donald Trump’s priorities on major matters concerning United States allies.

That included the AUKUS defence pact between Australia, the US and the United Kingdom, as well as a short-lived “pause” on US weapons assistance to Ukraine earlier this year and a recent drawdown of US troops stationed in NATO ally country, Romania.

The Pentagon launched a review of AUKUS in June and, in briefings to reporters, raised concerns about whether the agreement suited “America First” interests or was feasible. That included questions over whether the US was producing enough nuclear-powered submarines to sell them to Australia, and how Australia would use them in the event of a conflict with China.

But Trump strongly backed the deal when he met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House last month, dismissing concerns about feasibility and saying it was “full steam ahead”.

Senate committee chair Roger Wicker, a long-serving Republican from Mississippi, said at the hearing on Tuesday he was disappointed Trump’s decisions were “apparently slow-walked or reversed” by the Pentagon during the year.

“The AUKUS deal was cast into doubt despite the president’s strong support of the AUKUS agreement – much to the surprise and dismay of Australia, one of our most steadfast allies,” he said.

Wicker said the committee had enjoyed a relatively positive relationship with War Secretary Pete Hegseth and deputy secretary Steve Feinberg, but it had struggled to receive information from the policy office led by Colby, including about the Pentagon’s imminent National Defence Strategy review. “The situation needs to improve.”

Wicker’s comments were largely directed to Austin Dahmer, Colby’s acting deputy, whom Trump has nominated to become assistant secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities. Dahmer is one of Colby’s key allies at the Pentagon.

Dahmer was also grilled by Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who complained the AUKUS review surprised Australia, the UK and Trump administration officials.

“It just seems like there’s this pig pen-like mess coming out of the policy shop that you don’t see from [other areas of the Pentagon],” Cotton said.

Dahmer said the AUKUS review was directed by Hegseth, and it was natural to examine the Biden-era initiative. However, he hinted that the Pentagon still had concerns.

Asked to confirm that the deal was now full steam ahead, as the president said, Dahmer said: “I would welcome the opportunity to brief you in a classified setting on the conclusions and recommendations of the review, but I think President Trump was absolutely clear that he supports AUKUS, and we’re moving forward.”

Wicker later queried that statement. “There’s nothing classified about the fact that we’re full steam ahead with AUKUS,” he said.

In his opening remarks, Dahmer noted a key Pentagon objective was to ensure that “our efforts to arm allies and partners strengthen, and do not detract from, our ability to execute the [US defence] strategy”.

Dan Sullivan, a Republican senator from Alaska, said it appeared to the committee that key decisions made by the policy unit of the Pentagon “are undermining what the president is trying to get done”. He also excoriated Colby for being secretive and difficult to contact.

“You know who the hardest guy to get a hold of in the Trump administration is? The undersecretary of defence for policy,” Sullivan said.

“The guy you’re going to go work for has been really bad on this. The worst in the administration ... I can’t even get a response, and we’re on your team! You’re not helping yourselves – you’re not.”

The comments from the Republican senators reflect the long-standing bipartisan support AUKUS has enjoyed in Congress, even when that support appeared to waver in parts of the administration.

Lisa Curtis, director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security, previously told this masthead she expected Republicans to be bolder in their support for AUKUS now that the president had given it his imprimatur.

“The announcement of the Pentagon review had led officials to publicly hedge their comments on the initiative. I think that will no longer be the case,” she said after the Albanese visit.

In a statement, the Pentagon confirmed its AUKUS review was ongoing.“We have no further AUKUS updates to announce at this time,” a War Department official said.

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