John Christianson, Sean Monaghan and Di Cooke Center for Strategic and International Studies
On September 15, 2021, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced a landmark trilateral security partnership known as AUKUS. The centerpiece of the cooperation, known as Pillar 1, is the delivery of a nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) capability to Australia. This historic agreement — the first time the U.S. has shared its sensitive nuclear-propulsion technology with an ally since the 1958 Mutual Defense Agreement with the U.K. — was the focus of global media coverage following the announcement. Beijing and Paris both reacted acidly to the deal (albeit for different reasons). Progress on this pillar occurred in March 2023, when leaders of the AUKUS nations converged on Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, California, to announce a pathway toward a trilaterally developed submarine, the SSN-AUKUS class. Pillar 2 of the partnerships, however, has received less attention.
If Pillar 1 proved historic, then Pillar 2 could be revolutionary. According to the AUKUS announcement, the purpose of Pillar 2 is to enhance joint capabilities and interoperability. Yet the scope of the original agreement was massive, covering cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technologies and additional undersea capabilities. A few months later, four more areas were added to these advanced capabilities: hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, electronic warfare (EW), innovation, and information sharing.
Individually, each area of Pillar 2 has potential in the strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taken together, they could be game-changing, securing the future military and economic advantage of AUKUS nations and recasting the nature of this competition for global influence.
With the announcement of the Pillar 1 pathway toward the AUKUS submarine, Pillar 2 may now become the focus of AUKUS given its transformational potential. In fact, Pillar 2 has already turned the political rhetoric of AUKUS into practical deliverables as seen in May 2023, when the U.K. hosted the first AUKUS technology demonstration, which reportedly achieved several world firsts for swarming uncrewed AI-enabled assets.
The methodology of this report is three-fold. First, it examines the potential for short-term interoperability gains among the AUKUS nations in the EW and information-sharing focus areas. Second, it analyzes potential challenges and opportunities for AUKUS to pioneer the integration of AI into military operations. Finally, it sets out three key barriers to achieving the potential of Pillar 2 and discusses what it will take to overcome those barriers.
Interoperability: A Near-Term Promise
AUKUS Pillar 2 can be used to deliver the quick wins necessary to ensure the immediate success of the agreement and increase member countries’ collective technological advantages. Specifically, this can be achieved in the areas of EW and command and control (C2), where enhanced interoperability among partners could yield quick wins.
Electronic Warfare
Significant linkages already exist among the AUKUS parties regarding EW, but further advancements can be unlocked through AUKUS. Currently, the Australia, Canada and U.K. Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL) at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, conducts agile EW reprogramming for F-35 aircraft from Australia and the U.K. In concept, Canada may also use the lab once it buys its own F-35s. Also at Eglin and sharing connections with the ACURL is the U.S. Air Force’s 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing (SWW), whose mission is to “deliver adaptive and cutting-edge electromagnetic spectrum capabilities that provide the warfighter a tactical and strategic competitive advantage and freedom to attack, maneuver, and defend.” This includes EW reprogramming of all U.S. F-35 aircraft through the 513th Electronic Warfare Squadron (EWS). Being in the same location with the same mission would seem to indicate a level of cooperation and crossflow, yet regulations make it difficult for engineers from the EWS and the ACURL to collaborate — if they are even able to at all.
Due to the complex nature of competition and conflict in the electromagnetic spectrum, SWW was formed as a first-of-its-kind wing to connect pockets of excellence in EW. While it has made great strides in reforming the EW reprogramming process within the United States, it remains unable to connect those pockets of excellence that exist between the closest of Allies. AUKUS Pillar 2 is crucial to breaking through these barriers to connect systems across the tripartite agreement.
The partner nations can begin by taking two initial steps. The first is to overcome classification hurdles. AUKUS countries have taken initial steps to strengthen defense trade integration, announcing reforms in August 2024 that exempt them from key export control regulations, which took effect in September 2024.
Second, the AUKUS nations should work together to establish standardized open system architecture (OSA) standards, which are increasingly important now that software updates are part of almost all military equipment. No longer can the three nations allow software to be vendor locked to the original hardware contractor, which drives a multitude of software-standard and integration problems across systems. This is an area where the U.S. has tried to enact reforms, but this has resulted in a proliferation of OSA standards. To avoid having to navigate multiple standards, the three nations should determine — and soon — which OSA to subscribe to for future acquisitions so they can ensure interoperability and technique sharing.
Command and Control
Much as with EW, networked operations and information sharing are also required for C2. Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. have been conducting combined allied operations since World War I. Even as the pace of operations has increased — as have the number of domains in which conflict can occur, including space and cyberspace — the three Allies have remained linked in their C2 doctrine, training and in some cases systems. This has given them extreme success when they operate as a combined force. As the AUKUS countries move from traditional, domain-specific C2 constructs to a cross-domain model reliant on new concepts and technologies, these linkages need to remain for the Allies continue on their trajectory of success. The same barriers that exist in the EW realm also threaten future integration of C2.
Regarding new concepts for C2, Australia and the U.K. should be included in U.S.-conducted training on all-domain C2 so that all AUKUS partners start with a common baseline. Additionally, AUKUS partners should be more fully integrated in the air domain as the U.S. Air Force implements its Agile Combat Employment concept, designed to provide force survivability and operational C2 in a contested environment. AUKUS Allies should be more integrated into the planning and execution of the concept so they can fully take advantage of it, especially in the Indo-Pacific.
Likewise, as new C2 technologies come online in the near term, AUKUS partners should ensure integration across the trilateral force. This is fortunately an area in which the partners have already made great strides, and this level of integration should be maintained.
Integrating AI: The Long-term Promise
Successful technological integration among AUKUS members in the near term will also enable further long-term integration of advanced technology. Pillar 2 of AUKUS can be used to realize a force that is integrated by design to gain a competitive edge as new technologies are invented and deployed. This section considers the long-standing opportunities and challenges for one of Pillar 2’s most widely discussed advanced technologies, AI. If AUKUS members act now to establish Pillar 2’s AI focus area, they could ensure future success in leveraging the technology.
AI technologies are capable of being a force multiplier on and off the battlefield, from enhancing decision-making capabilities to improving predictive maintenance to augmenting unmanned weapons systems. While incorporating integration requirements from the outset is vital for successfully utilizing any technology, it is especially critical for AI technologies given their growing prevalence in the defense sector and their development and deployment hurdles.
This article was originally published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in July 2023. It has been edited to fit Sentry’s format. Read the full report at https://www.csis.org/analysis/aukus-pillar-two-advancing-capabilities-united-states-united-kingdom-and-australia.