High-tech deal aims to counter China threat

From underwater drones to electronic warfare, the United States is expanding its high-tech military cooperation with Australia and the United Kingdom as part of a broader effort to counter China’s rapidly growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met with defence chiefs from Australia and the United Kingdom at the US military’s defence technology hub in Silicon Valley yesterday to forge a new agreement to increase technology cooperation and information-sharing.

The goal, according to a joint statement, is to be able to better address global security challenges, ensure each can defend against rapidly evolving threats, and to “contribute to stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond”.

Austin met with Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles and British Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps at the Defence Innovation Unit headquarters.

The new technology agreement is the next step in a widening military cooperation with Australia that was first announced in 2021.

The three nations have laid out plans for the so-called AUKUS partnership to help equip Australia with a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines. Marles said there had been an enormous amount of progress in the submarine programme.

According to officials, Australian Navy officers have already started to go through nuclear power training at US military schools.

Also, earlier this year the US announced that it would expand its military industrial base by helping Australia manufacture guided missiles and rockets for both countries within two years.

The new agreement also sets up a series of military exercises involving the use of undersea and surface maritime drones and improving the ability of the three countries to share intelligence and data collected by sonobuoys, which are used to detect submarines and other objects in the water.

It also calls for plans to expand the use of artificial intelligence, including on P-8A surveillance aircraft, to more quickly process data from the buoys in order to improve anti-submarine warfare.

The agreement also says the three countries will establish new radar sites to beef up their ability to detect and track objects in deep space.