U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for strategies, plans, and capabilities, Mara Karlin emphasized the urgency to enhance AUKUS partners’ military capabilities and called for advancing military interoperability with U.S. allies and partners.
Karlin highlighted that “AUKUS has provided a lens into not only what military capabilities our closest allies need, but also what barriers exist that hamper pursuit of our integrated national security strategy and how we need to adapt our approach to meet our national security objectives.”
According to the U.S. assistant secretary of defense, the United States needs to “widen the aperture; foster collaborative defense innovation; advance military interoperability with our allies and partners; and leverage our collective strengths as a force multiplier”.
The U.S. defense official believes that the AUKUS partnership provides an opportunity “to streamline defense cooperation and to identify sticking points that make information or technology sharing a challenge”. She also emphasized the urgency to expand defense technology-sharing practices between partner states.
Karlin said that the development of new technologies is critical to U.S. defense and to the defense of AUKUS partners. The AUKUS partnership will create opportunities for cooperation that will advance the development and availability of those new technologies.
“We cannot do this alone, and our AUKUS partners stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States, as they have for many decades,” Karlin added.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also described AUKUS as “a generational opportunity” and Karlin highlighted that the U.S. National Defense Strategy defines integrated deterrence as “a holistic response to the strategies that our competitors are pursuing and directs the use of campaigning to gain military advantage”.
Last week U.S. and Australian defense officials held U.S.-Australia Defense Policy & Strategy Talks at the Pentagon to discuss shared challenges in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond by ensuring close coordination and promoting the alignment of strategic guidance.
Separately on Department of Defense announced May 26 that AUKUS partners demonstrated a trial of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy under the Advanced Capabilities pillar in Wiltshire, UK. The AUKUS partners aim to rapidly drive these technologies into military use.
The U.S., the UK, and Australia are working on several leading-edge technologies and capabilities to promote security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
