From underwater drones to electronic warfare, the US is expanding its high-tech military cooperation with Australia and the UK as part of a broader effort to counter China’s rapidly growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Friday met with Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles and British Secretary of Defence Grant Shapps at the US military’s Defense Innovation Unit headquarters in Silicon Valley to forge a new agreement to increase technology cooperation and information sharing.
The goal 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,” they said in a joint statement.
Photo: AFP
Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Austin said the effort would rapidly accelerate the sophistication of the drone systems used by the members of the AUKUS military alliance among Australia, the UK and the US, and prove that “we are stronger together.”
The new technology agreement is the next step in the widening military cooperation with Australia that was first announced in 2021. The three nations have laid out plans to help equip Australia with a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines.
Under the deal, Australia is to buy three Virginia-class submarines from the US and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with the UK. The subs, powered by US nuclear technology, would not carry nuclear weapons and would be built in Adelaide, Australia, with the first one to be finished in about 2040.
Marles said there has been an enormous amount of progress in the submarine program, adding that as an island nation, Australia has a need for improved maritime drones and precision strike capabilities.
Shapps said that with China “undermining the freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific, we’ve never had a greater need for more innovation.”
He said that open navigation of the seas, including in the Pacific and the South China Sea, is critical.
Royal Australian Navy officers have already started to undergo nuclear power training at US military schools, officials have said.
The new agreement also sets up a series of military exercises involving the use of undersea and surface maritime drones and improves the ability of the three countries to share intelligence and data collected by their 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 to improve anti-submarine warfare.
The three countries are also to establish new radar sites to beef up their ability to detect and track objects in deep space.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
RSS