US, UK, Australia to cooperate on development of hypersonic weapons

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US, UK and Australia announced Tuesday plans to cooperate on the development of hypersonic and counter-hypersonic weapons.

The announcement follows a virtual meeting between US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Premier Boris Johnson as part of the nascent AUKUS trilateral security pact.

In addition to extending the pact to hypersonic development, the leaders said they would collaborate on electronic warfare capabilities, and would boost "information sharing" and "deepen cooperation on defense innovation."

"These initiatives will add to our existing efforts to deepen cooperation on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities," the leaders said in a statement.

"As our work progresses on these and other critical defense and security capabilities, we will seek opportunities to engage allies and close partners," they added.

AUKUS, which took effect in September, was announced alongside the pledge to provide Australia with a fleet nuclear-powered conventionally-armed submarines. That deal stoked French ire as it led to Canberra reneging on a previous $66 billion French contract to build a fleet of conventionally-powered submarines.

The row has since been mended and the leaders said they are "pleased with the progress in our trilateral program for Australia to establish a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability."

"We are fully committed to establishing a robust approach to sharing naval propulsion technology with Australia that strengthens the global non-proliferation regime," they said.