Transgender and non-binary people in the Australian Defence Force can’t currently begin the training that leads to a career on nuclear-powered submarines. The new documents were released under freedom of information laws.
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- A defence briefing says non-binary personnel can’t start submarine training.
- ADF personnel on duty in the US must comply with US policy.
- Rear Adm. Tish van Stralen said the Navy will look for alternative career paths.
- Defence Department didn’t say how many personnel have been affected.
- Australia is proposing to buy three Virginia-class submarines from the US.
An internal defence briefing, released under freedom of information laws and reported by The Guardian, explains why. It says the ADF’s policy on equality and inclusion hasn’t changed, but ‘US government policy is different’. Personnel on duty in the US, including those in training, must follow US policy, the briefing says.
That matters because Australia doesn’t have a nuclear-powered submarine fleet of its own. Hundreds of its sailors and officers are training on US nuclear submarines and at US bases.
Under the Aukus deal, Australia is proposed to buy three Virginia-class nuclear submarines from the US, beginning in 2032. Until then, Australian sailors are training on board US Virginia-class submarines, and US-flagged nuclear submarines are porting in Australia.
The Guardian describes the US position this way. Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025, in the first week of his second term, that banned transgender service personnel and said gender-diverse people were unfit to serve. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, also directed his department to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices and initiatives, and has ordered that transgender personnel be removed from the services.
At a women in defence event in October, Rear Adm. Tish van Stralen was asked how the ADF is managing recruitment of gender-diverse and LGBTQ+ Australians into the nuclear submarine pathway, given the US directive. Van Stralen, one of the highest-ranking women in the Australian navy, said the ADF is a diverse and equal opportunity employer.
‘Very difficult for me to put a gender-diverse person into that training’ — Rear Adm. Tish van Stralen
She said potential recruits are told the ADF is subject to the policies and laws of other countries, and that the navy has a duty of care to its people. It would be ‘very difficult for me to put a gender-diverse person into that training’ at the moment, she said.
Van Stralen said the navy will seek alternative career paths for gender-diverse recruits who can’t join the nuclear submarine program. She said the UK, Australia’s other Aukus partner, has more liberal policies, and that training opportunities may arise there. The navy doesn’t want to disadvantage people, she said, but it is subject to US laws and policies when in the US.
The Guardian reports that crewing the proposed fleet is likely to be one of Aukus’s most critical and sustained challenges. Virginia-class submarines have a crew of 135, more than double that of Australia’s diesel-electric Collins-class submarines. Defence Minister Richard Marles has said the Aukus timeline presents a significant training challenge, and that the answer is to train more people.
The defence department didn’t respond to The Guardian’s questions about the impact of following the US policy, including how many Australian service personnel have been prevented from starting nuclear submarine training.
The government’s nuclear-powered submarine workforce strategy urges defence to expand its talent pool by actively including underrepresented groups. The excerpt The Guardian quotes names women, First Nations Australians and regional communities among them.
For now, the briefing says the training pathway is closed to gender-diverse personnel and applicants, while the navy says it is looking at other options.
