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The defence ministers of the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia have met in California to discuss their shared vision and announce an update for a raft of initiatives across both AUKUS Pillar I and Pillar II.
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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III hosted Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles and UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps at the Defense Innovation Unit headquarters in California to discuss the AUKUS enhanced defence and security partnership.
Under AUKUS Pillar I, Australia will acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines and under Advanced Capabilities (Pillar II), AUKUS partners are substantially deepening cooperation on a range of security and defence capabilities.
During the meeting in California, the secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister reaffirmed their commitment to delivering an optimal pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, including establishing Submarine Rotational Force-West in Australia as early as 2027, selling US Virginia Class submarines to Australia from the early 2030s, and delivering SSN-AUKUS to the Royal Navy in the late 2030s and the first Australian-built SSN-AUKUS to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the early 2040s.
They also announced that Australian sailors will commence duty in Guam in early 2024 to build their SSN maintenance skills and qualifications in the lead-up to SRF-West, as well as increased frequency of SSN visits to HMAS Stirling in 2024 and first planned maintenance activity of a US SSN planned to occur at HMAS Stirling in the second half of next year.
“Australia’s alliance with the United States and our relationship with the United Kingdom are two of our most consequential partnerships which strengthen our national security,” according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles.
“I am looking forward to meeting my counterparts from the US and the UK – Secretary Austin and Secretary of State Shapps – to continue the progress we are making through the AUKUS partnership and Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.
“From undersea and electronic warfare, to advanced cyber, artificial intelligence and autonomy, there is significant work underway across our three nations in enhancing our shared capabilities under Pillar II of AUKUS.”
The secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister welcomed the new foreign military sales case between Australia and the United States presented to the US Congress, which will facilitate the early delivery of capability to support SRF-West and provide mechanisms to train Australians.
They also welcomed Australia’s introduction of legislation to the Australian Parliament which will establish the framework to ensure nuclear safety within Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine enterprise, including establishing an independent nuclear safety regulator, as well as the first AUKUS-enabling legislation introduced to the Australian Parliament, the Defence Legislation Amendment (Naval Nuclear Propulsion) Bill 2023, in July 2023.
AUKUS partners will undertake a series of integrated trilateral experiments and exercises to enhance capability development, improve interoperability, and increase the sophistication and scale of autonomous systems in the maritime domain under an AUKUS Maritime Autonomy Experimentation and Exercise Series.
The series aims to enhance trilateral anti-submarine warfare using common advanced artificial intelligence algorithms on multiple systems; undersea vehicle launch and recovery through launch and recovery of undersea vehicles from torpedo tubes on current classes of submarines; quantum positioning by accelerating the development of quantum technologies for positioning, navigation, and timing in military capabilities; resilient and autonomous artificial intelligence technologies using artificial intelligence algorithms and machine learning to enhance force protection, precision targeting, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
The AUKUS partners will also build on Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability with 24-hour continuous, all-weather global coverage to detect, track, and identify objects in deep space and increase space domain awareness. The first radar site in Western Australia will be operational in 2026, with all three in service by the end of the decade.
The secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister also noted that all AUKUS partners will need to strengthen cyber capabilities, including protecting critical communication and operations’ systems.
In the area of defence industry support, all three partners will launch a series of AUKUS innovation challenges (including the first trilateral Innovation Prize Challenge, focusing on electronic warfare in early 2024), as well as AUKUS Advanced Capabilities Industry Forum from the first half of next year, an International Joint Requirements Oversight Council to identify operational requirements and an AUKUS Defense Investors Network leveraging the current networks in all three countries.
