(Image: Zennie/Private Media)

It’s been a beguilingly comfortable thought that the impact of our forever AUKUS agreement won’t be felt until 10 or 20 years into the future when Australia (theoretically at least) takes ownership of its first nuclear-powered submarines. In truth the impact is right here, right now. Australia is already a changed place. 

The shape of things has started to become clear with news emerging from AUSMIN talks last week that — just quietly — American intelligence operatives would now be integrated into Australia’s existing Defence Intelligence Organisation via a new branch called the Combined Intelligence Centre. Defence Minister Richard Marles uses the word “seamless” to describe this step up in intelligence ties.

But if you think this escalation is something to reckon with, you haven’t heard about Iraq veteran and American patriot Eric Chewning.

Square of jaw and firm of gaze, Chewning is a top executive at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), one of the two giant US conglomerates which build nuclear submarines for the US Navy. Their work now makes them critical to Australia’s defence future. (The other company is General Dynamics Electric Boat, a client of lobbying behemoth Crosby Textor which, as we revealed, is also pals with “Father of AUKUS” Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party. )

Crikey understands that executives from both companies — including Chewning — recently paid a visit to HMAS Stirling, the naval base near Perth that is set to be used more and more as a staging post for the US Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines in the coming years. Someone will have to maintain and repair these vessels when they dock, and that will be HII and Electric Boat because, well, they built them in the first place. 

The visit of Chewning (among others) means the hard men of the US war machine have now well and truly arrived on the scene.

Scholars of the Iraq war will know of Chewning’s key role as a strategic adviser to US General David Petraeus, who was shoehorned in to rescue America from its disastrous foray into the complex world of Middle East geopolitics. Australia, of course, did its duty as junior partner. The ties go way back.

Chewning was knee-deep in gathering on-the-ground intelligence which could be used to plan US attacks. A book on America’s Iraq nightmare, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, recounts that “on his own initiative” Chewning was “making pals” with Shia and Sunni militiamen, aka George W Bush’s “bad guys”. Somehow Chewning was able to wangle out vital information from these insurgents — perhaps over a cup of sweet tea — to work out which of the other bad guys the Americans should be going for.

“At their peak [Chewning’s crew] were running three-day targeting cycles: making an arrest, getting new intel, making another arrest — all in a three-day period,” wrote Insurgents author Fred Kaplan. By the end of his 15 months on the Petraeus surge, Chewning was said to have the numbers of dozens of “friendly bad guys” in his cell phone and could make a call or two to discover who was behind the latest round of attacks.

This sort of hardcore intel work takes a certain kind of patriot. Step forward, Eric Chewning, the patriot’s patriot.

No career soldier, Chewning left his job as a Wall Street banker to join the US Army after friends of his were killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. The Bush administration soon determined that Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein was the real threat, notwithstanding that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda was based in Afghanistan and that most of the hijackers were Saudi nationals. Nevertheless a majority of Americans, and evidently Chewning himself, were riled enough to go fight, even if it was the wrong enemy.

The Insurgents says of Chewning that in dealing with local militiamen he was doing “essentially the same thing” he had learned as a mergers and acquisitions broker at Merrill Lynch: he was networking, only this time with militiamen carrying guns and bombs. 

From this point on, Chewning entered the world of neverending war. His work meant he was either at war, talking about war or preparing for a war to come. He has done this at the highest levels.

After Iraq, Chewning became a consultant at McKinsey & Company, working in the defence and aerospace industries with regular contacts with the US’ big-hitting defence companies. In 2017 Trump administration defence secretary James Mattis brought him on board to solve manufacturing issues plaguing the US defence industrial base. He later became Mattis’ chief of staff. Come the end of the Trump circus in 2021 it was back to McKinsey before he joined HII this year as executive vice president, strategy and development. The company has a workforce of 43,000. Last year it reported revenue of US$10.7 billion (A$16.2 billion).

HII is a company so vast in scope and revenue that it has had to remould the English language to capture what it does. It describes itself as “a global, all-domain defence provider” united by “our mission in service of the nation, creating the advantage for our customers to protect peace and freedom around the world”.

American defence watchdog site POGO has captured the revolving-door career of Eric Chewning. It documents the full interconnectedness of America’s giant defence companies and the Pentagon. Chewning also donated to Republican campaigns in 2016. It totalled a mere $1000 but it showed where his politics lay.

It’s been barely six months since Anthony Albanese, Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden stood together on a sunshine-bathed podium, flags aflutter, at the US Navy’s San Diego base for the formal announcement of AUKUS. 

But as the politicians and their army of suits shuffle off, the real power has moved in. Australia’s forever future is taking shape, with the country now joined at the hip with US spooks, spies and veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom — like Eric Chewning. 

Next assignment for the freedom fighters: China.

A spokesperson for HII has confirmed that Chewning visited HMAS Stirling, among other sites during his visit to Australia.

“Eric Chewning’s visit to Australia is part of our company’s commitment to support the AUKUS alliance and show our appreciation for the importance of Australia’s role in regional and global security,” the spokesperson, Danny Hernandez, said via email.

“We look forward to leveraging our longstanding expertise in nuclear shipbuilding and defence technologies, maintenance and sustainment, workforce and supply chain development in support of the AUKUS lines of effort.”

Crikey sought comment from WA government agency Defence West on its dealings with HII and Chewning, as well as for clarification on HII’s role at the HMAS Stirling base. The agency has not responded. Crikey also sought comment from the Australian Submarine Agency but it too has yet to respond.

David Hardaker can be contacted via secure email on dhardaker@protonmail.com.