Fast track for AUKUS defence strategy
OFF-THE-SHELF technology including hypersonic missiles, autonomous undersea vehicles and cyber warfare systems will be fast-tracked to sharpen Australia’s defences before our nuclear submarines hit the water.
Under the multistage submarine plan, to be unveiled on Tuesday in San Diego, Australia’s first nuclear boats will be US Virginia-class submarines that are tipped to arrive after 2030.
Australia’s US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos said this meant the AUKUS partners were now planning to launch a major search for “near-term” defence upgrades in what US President Joe Biden has dubbed the “decisive decade” in combating the rise of China.
In an exclusive interview, Mr Sinodinos also said one of the major challenges facing his replacement Kevin Rudd – who starts next week – was ensuring AUKUS and the US’s other Indo-Pacific partnerships would “outlast administrations of different political stripes”, including the potential return of Donald Trump in 2024.
The ambassador, who was Malcolm Turnbull’s industry minister, described AUKUS as Australia’s “moonshot”.
But he said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement on Tuesday with Mr Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was only “the end of the beginning”.
“The challenge now is as a nation to put the shoulder to the wheel and get this done,” he told News Corp in San Diego.
“Failure is not an option. This is a multi-decadal commitment.”
While nuclear submarines are the first pillar of the AUKUS pact, the second involves other defence capabilities which Mr Sinodinos said would be developed between Australia, the US and the UK under overhauled technology-sharing rules.
He said work was already underway behind the scenes on potential co-operation on technologies including hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare and unmanned undersea alternatives to submarines.
He said the war in Ukraine had accelerated innovation in asymmetric warfare.
“Once the announcement is made this week, there will be a process of industry engagement which – at least in my view – should be a good way to flush low-hanging fruit of proposals from the private sector for off-the-shelf solutions to various issues,” Mr Sinodinos said.
“The countries that will do well in the future are the countries that capitalise on critical and emerging technologies as a basis for new industries.”
Mr Sinodinos said he was confident doubts among some US congressmen and navy chiefs about selling nuclear submarines to Australia would not impact AUKUS, saying there was “a very strong consensus that America must work with its allies to create the conditions for a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific”.
Asked whether that could be at risk if Mr Trump won next year’s presidential election, Mr Sinodinos said: “One of the challenges we face here in Washington as representatives of Australia is to help encourage the institutionalisation of the various initiatives the US is taking in the Indo-Pacific.”
He said maintaining continuity would be important not just with AUKUS, but in leader-level co-operation in the Quad – involving Australia, the US, Japan and India – and the Partners in the Blue Pacific initiative.
Mr Sinodinos’s three-year posting in Washington DC ends this week before Mr Rudd takes over.