First submarine selected for Australia rotations arrives Down Under for maintenance

The USS Colorado has arrived Down Under for a monthlong maintenance period ahead of the force’s launch next year. Personel with the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility watch as the fast-attack submarine USS Colorado arrives at HMAS Stirling, Australia, Oct. 27, 2026. (Trice Denny/U.S. Navy) The USS Colorado, named this week as the first submarine assigned to a new rotational force in Australia, has arrived Down Under for a monthlong maintenance period ahead of the force’s launch next year. The U.S. Embassy in Canberra announced Wednesday on X that the Hawaii-based Virginia-class fast-attack vessel had pulled into HMAS Stirling, an Australian navy base near Perth.

More than 30 certified Australian civilian technicians will work on the Colorado alongside specialists from Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Hawaii, the embassy said. The visit supports Submarine Rotational Force-West, established under the AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Beginning late next year, the force is expected to rotate up to four American fast-attack submarines and one British submarine through Stirling. The Colorado is slated to return to the base around that time to begin its rotation, the Australian Defence Department said in a news release Tuesday. The Navy reactivated Submarine Squadron 3 in June to support the mission. The Virginia-class fast-attack