The leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, collectively known as AUKUS, have decided to collaborate on hypersonic weapons and electronic warfare capabilities.
The development comes after the three countries formed the AUKUS defense alliance in September last year, prompting Australia to cancel a contract for a conventional French submarine in favor of a nuclear submarine program backed by the US and the UK, causing a rift with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Australia To Build Hypersonic Missiles With US, UK
The AUKUS leaders - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison - said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they were pleased with the progress of the program for conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, and that the allies would work together in other areas as well, according to Aljazeera.
The weaponry would help safeguard Australia in an uncertain Indo-Pacific, according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. "These are the latest and high-tech missiles that we're talking about. It's not like they've been in operation for a decade or so," he explained. The missiles have a range of 2,000 kilometers and move at five times the speed of sound.
The United States and Australia already have a hypersonic weapon program named SCIFiRE (Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment). Officials added that while the United Kingdom would not join the initiative at this time, the three countries would collaborate on research and development in the area to broaden their choices.
As a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, President Joe Biden's government is investing in the research and development of hypersonic missiles, which move at five times the speed of sound. On February 24, Russia announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine to demilitarize its neighbor. Ukraine and the West reject the Kremlin's position as an excuse for an unjustified attack.
When asked about a hypersonic weapons cooperation agreement between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun warned against steps that may ignite a crisis similar to the Ukraine conflict in other regions of the world, as per SBS News.
AUKUS Also Seeks To Develop Technologies
London, Washington, and Canberra are also attempting to collaborate in areas like as cyber and quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, and robot submarines, all of which are areas in which Western democracies are competing with competitor countries for the upper hand.
The AUKUS accord sparked uproar in Paris when it was first announced, as the submarine deal replaced a prior proposal for France to provide Australia with diesel-electric boats. After keeping the launch under wraps for two weeks to avoid worsening tensions with Russia, the US said Tuesday that it had successfully test-fired a hypersonic missile.
The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) flew at speeds faster than Mach 5 for more than 300 miles above 65,000 feet, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The time of the test was not mentioned in the DARPA statement, but it occurred when President Biden was about to fly to Brussels last month.
Biden traveled to Belgium for an emergency NATO conference before heading to Poland to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Ukrainian refugees, and US troops. The HAWC's debut last month was the second successful test, with the first taking place in September, New York Post reported.
