Recommendations were made on governance and strategic communications, among other things.

The UK-AUKUS review lead, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, has shared his key recommendations with DSEI Gateway after completing a review of the programme late last year.

The review looked at both ‘Pillar I’ and ‘Pillar II’ of the programme, which focus on helping Australia acquire conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines and advanced military capabilities, respectively. The review also looked at the governance and strategic communications of the programme.

“I thought that we could probably make improvements in all of those areas”, Lovegrove said.

His recommendations included the need to “drive through” on submarine build and maintenance, prioritise a number of advanced technologies, and re-focus the governance of the programme across departments.

He added that the UK in particular needs to “do a better job of strategic communications”, given the size of the programme and the fact that it isn’t understood well enough.

“My specific recommendations have all been accepted by the Prime Minister, so they're being actioned”, Lovegrove said.

Whether or not a copy of the review will be made public is a matter for the government, Lovegrove said, though he did note that a classified version has been released to Australia and the US. 

Other reviews into the programme are ongoing in both Australia and the US, though Lovegrove noted that he believes the Australian review is “pretty much finished” while the results of the US review are not yet known.

“We feel pretty confident that…AUKUS will go from strength to strength as a result of all of that”, he said.

The US review of AUKUS began in June 2025 as part of a mission to ensure the programme meets the country’s “America First” agenda, with some reports suggesting it will conclude in autumn of 2025.