SYDNEY, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Australia will make a second

billion-dollar payment to boost U.S. nuclear submarine shipyards

soon, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said in Washington on

Tuesday, ahead of an official visit by Prime Minister Anthony

Albanese next week.

The AUKUS agreement to transfer nuclear-powered submarines

to Australia is being reviewed by the Pentagon, although

Australia has expressed confidence the deal, which also includes

Britain, will proceed.

In its first phase, Australia has pledged 3 billion U.S. dollars

to boost U.S. submarine production rates, to later allow the

sale of three Virginia submarines to Canberra, with a 2025

deadline for the first $2 billion.

"We've made a billion dollars. The plan is to provide

another billion dollars shortly," Conroy told reporters in

Washington, where he said he is meeting with Trump

administration and defence industry officials.

Albanese will travel to Washington next week for an official

visit and his first formal meeting with U.S. President Donald

Trump, with the AUKUS defence partnership expected to be a focus

of talks.

Defence Minister Richard Marles told reporters in Canberra

on Tuesday that Australia was contributing to a Pentagon review

of AUKUS and had "a sense of when this will conclude", without

disclosing the timing.

Australia is shifting to a model of defence co-development

and co-production with the United States, including for the

manufacture of guided weapons, and Albanese would highlight this

to Trump, Conroy said.

Australia expects to manufacture up to 4,000 Lockheed Martin ( LMT )

guided missiles annually from a new factory to begin production

by the end of the year, including supplying U.S. defence needs,

he said in a television interview with Sky News Australia.

Australia is also working with the United States and Lockheed

Martin ( LMT ) to develop a longer range Precision Strike

Missile reaching "in excess of a thousand kilometres", he added.

"This is one example of us shifting to a co-design,

co-development, co-production, co-sustainment model where we

work in partnership with the United States and deepen the

industrial base of both countries," he said.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney)