Here, he’ll spend the next three days engaging with U.S. troops and Japanese leaders about ongoing joint command-and-control upgrades the two militaries are pursuing, as well as a range of other nascent cooperative efforts designed to expand and modernize their shared arsenals of warfighting assets.

During an 11-hour flight overseas from California, a senior U.S. defense official traveling in Austin’s delegation briefed a small group of reporters on the demonstrations and activities the secretary and his team are set to observe and participate in at multiple military installations around the island nation.

“Throughout the next three days, we’re going to see a lot of ‘firsts’ in Japan,” the senior defense official said.

It might be his last visit to the close U.S. treaty ally as secretary, but this trip also marks Austin’s fourth official time in Japan while steering DOD.

In the senior defense official’s view, “it’s fitting that the secretary would travel again to Japan at the end of this year because his first overseas trip as secretary in March 2021 was to the Indo-Pacific — and his first foreign stop on that trip was Japan.”

On Monday, Austin will head to Yokosuka Naval Base and tour the USS George Washington, which has been docked there since last month and is the only forward-deployed U.S. aircraft carrier worldwide at this time.

According to the senior official, it’s also the first time, in this context, that the Navy’s forward-deployed carrier air wing includes fifth-generation aircraft, the stealthy F-35C.

“So, this really marks a very significant milestone for our force posture efforts in Japan. And importantly, it showcases just how we are continuously modernizing the alliance’s capabilities, especially since we’ve started in 2021,” they said.

Next up, on Tuesday, the secretary will head to Yokota Air Base, where U.S. Forces Japan is now headquartered.  

“He’s actually going to get a progress report on how we are doing on command and control, or C2, and the upgrades that they’re actually making underway,” the senior defense official explained.

At a 2+2 dialogue in Tokyo this summer, top U.S. and Japanese national security officials solidified a plan to strategically update their alliance’s C2 capabilities, largely by deepening defense industry and advanced technology cooperation, and enhancing cross-domain operations.

“We have to get this right — but we also have to do it the right way. So, I think Tuesday’s briefing is going to give [Austin] a chance to really take stock on what’s been happening, what’s progressed today, what’s expected of this ongoing effort,” the senior defense official said.

Further, Japan is currently developing its military’s own, first-ever Joint Operations Center, with aims to officially stand it up in March 2025. Austin and his counterparts are looking to discuss changes America is making to U.S. Forces Japan to ensure they can eventually link up with that new joint operational command in a way that they have not been able to before.

From there, Austin and the team will head to Yokohama North Dock to meet directly with the U.S. Army’s 5th Composite Watercraft Company.

“This is significant because this company was actually activated in February of this year. It’s not only the first time this is deployed — now, it’s the first time [any of the] companies deployed outside the United States,” the senior defense official told reporters.

And then to close out Tuesday’s packed schedule of events, Austin is set to attend an office call with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and then a working dinner with Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani.

“These engagements are going to give the secretary the opportunity to really take stock of the progress that we’ve made together over the years, thank the two of them, really, for the partnership, and underscore the importance of the alliance as a cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” the official noted.

They and others have suggested to DefenseScoop that China’s intensifying employment of political, economic and military coercion to essentially reshape the international order in the Indo-Pacific — for its own benefit — is considered a major motivation for the U.S. and Japan’s steadily strengthening alliance in the region.

Finally, on Wednesday, Austin will conclude the trip after traveling to Camp Asaka to observe the multi-day military exercise Yama Sakura unfolding in real-time.

“This exercise has taken place every year since 1982, but this is the first time that we’re actually incorporating more and formal Australian participation, which is something that Secretary Austin and his counterparts in Australia and Japan announced a few weeks ago in Darwin,” the senior defense official said.

Over recent months, leaders within the trilateral security alliance between Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. have been hosting nascent discussions with their Japanese counterparts about cooperating on a project-by-project basis under AUKUS Pillar 2, which entails the co-development of disruptive warfighting technologies across six focus areas.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Sunday regarding what capability areas may be prioritized first with Japan, the senior defense official confirmed consultations are ongoing, but declined to identify the specific technologies in question for nearest-term acceleration.

They committed to sharing more information after the trip to Tokyo ends.

“Importantly, we continue to work with Japan on deepening our trilateral and multilateral security partnerships — whether that’s with the Republic of Korea, Australia, the Philippines and others,” the senior defense official repeatedly emphasized during the briefing.

Notably, ahead of departing for this trip, DOD planners told reporters who were invited that there was a possibility that the secretary and his crew would also visit South Korea along the way. That changed after South Korea‘s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3 — and subsequently lifted it hours later after massive public outcry and lawmakers unanimously rejected the decree.

“When Secretary Austin meets with his counterparts, they often spend a good deal of time comparing assessments of major events in the region. And the trilateral relationship between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea has been a top tier priority for the Biden administration from the very start,” the senior defense official said in response to questions from DefenseScoop about whether the secretary planned to discuss the chaos and still-unfolding fallout in South Korea with his Japanese partners.

“And I think there is every reason to expect that all parties involved will remain quite committed — and certainly between Washington and Tokyo — quite committed to carrying on that progress,” they said.

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Signed under Pillar 2 of the AUKUS trilateral security pact, the so-called Hypersonic Flight Test and Experimentation (HyFliTE) project arrangement includes plans to conduct at least six flight test campaigns by 2028, according to a news release from the Pentagon. A funding pool worth $252 million will be used to finance the efforts, the release noted.

“We are increasing our collective ability to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies through a robust series of trilateral tests and experiments that will accelerate the development of hypersonic concepts and critical enabling technologies,” U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu said in a statement.

As one of Shyu’s 14 critical technology areas, hypersonic weapons are a key development effort at the Defense Department. The missiles are able to fly and maneuver through the atmosphere at speeds of at least Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound — making them difficult to intercept and defeat.

The U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy have each invested significant time and money into developing their own hypersonic missiles, but individual efforts have faced hurdles during their testing campaigns that have stalled final acquisition and fielding decisions. Those challenges, in part, have been attributed to a limited number of testing facilities and ranges within the United States.

Through HyFliTE, the three AUKUS nations are looking to ramp up the pace of hypersonic weapons testing through collaboration on resources, experience and test facilities. 

“Collaborative efforts are accelerating the development of underpinning enabling technologies, such as high temperature materials, advanced propulsion systems, and guidance and control,” Shyu said. “Each of these technologies is integral to the performance of hypersonic weapon systems and provides enhanced operational capability.”

Australia has previously partnered with the United States on hypersonics through the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE) effort. The nation is also home to the Woomera Range Complex, a large and highly specialized testing center that could be leveraged for live flight testing of these types of systems.

“This agreement will accelerate Australia’s sovereign ability to develop and deliver offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies — through a robust testing and experimentation campaign under AUKUS Pillar II,” Tanya Monro, Australia’s chief defense scientist, said in a statement.

According to a news release from the United Kingdom, the HyFliTE project is also expected to foster deep collaboration between the three allies’ industrial bases in order to break down acquisition barriers and strengthen supply chains.

The U.K. has also sourced domestic industry support for hypersonic weapons development through its Hypersonic Technologies and Capability Development Framework, including more than 90 suppliers and a commercial headroom of up to 1 billion British pounds, the news release added.

“This landmark arrangement with our US and Australian partners demonstrates the commitment of AUKUS partners to staying at the forefront of battle-winning defence technology,” United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said in a statement. “This work will keep us ahead of our adversaries on the battlefield, enhance our collective security and contribute to maintaining peace and stability in an increasingly complex and dangerous world.”

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America’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, and Japanese Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen detailed their latest cooperation agenda in a press briefing immediately following the fourteenth Trilateral Defense Ministers’ Meeting (TDMM) Nov. 17, where they’d solidified these aims.

“We’re excited to build advanced capabilities with Japan and Australia,” Austin told reporters there.

“We’re moving forward with our trilateral research, development, test and evaluation projects arrangement focusing on composite aerospace materials and autonomous systems. In the same vein, we’re deepening our discussions on cooperative combat aircraft and autonomy, and we’re also discussing opportunities to boost cooperation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar 2,” he said.

Broadly, the senior officials vowed to enhance their nations’ defense cooperation pursuits across four focus areas: expanding trilateral operational cooperation; building advanced capabilities together; planning together; and demonstrating presence in the region.

Among a range of fresh announcements, they confirmed new goals to cooperate on establishing a networked air-and-missile defense architecture designed to counter threats intensifying across the Indo-Pacific, and agreed to deepen collaboration with regard to trilateral training, exercises and exchanges.

They also launched a new plan for “Trilateral Defense Consultations” to more concretely align policy and operational objectives between America’s military services, the Japan Self Defense Forces, and the Australian Defence Force.

“There actually has been a real history and record of us working closely together. But what we are announcing today gives expression to the fact that — as three countries — we now seek to do this in a more and increasingly coordinated way. And that will be a benefit to our capability. We believe it will be the benefit to the collective security of the Indo-Pacific, and we believe it will make a significant contribution to the global rules-based order,” Marles said.

The trilateral partners also expressed concerns about intensifying, destabilizing actions being carried out by adversaries in the region — including what they called “dangerous conduct” and coercion that they attribute to China.

“The security environment is very severe right now, and very complex. We need to cooperate closely, from peacetime to contingency,” Nakatani said.

In terms of new plans for joint technology acceleration in the near term, Austin noted that through the AUKUS alliance, the U.S., U.K. and Australia are working together on Pillar 2 tech to “provide real capability to the warfighter as quickly as we possibly can.”

“We expect that Japan will join AUKUS Pillar 2 at some point in the not-too-distant future to work on specific projects that have yet to be named,” the defense secretary said.

“But again, there are just so many things that we can work together on and are working together on — whether it’s you know quantum capability, whether it’s [collaborative combat aircraft or CCA], or what you would describe as man-unmanned teaming aircraft, and just a number of other things that include long-range strike, and so many other things that I believe our work is going to kind of pay significant dividends to the warfighter here going forward,” Austin told DefenseScoop.

Ahead of the trilateral meeting, the defense leaders participated in a troop engagement with Australian soldiers and U.S. Marines rotationally based in Darwin — and were shown tanks, drones and other assets they are developing and deploying.

At one point, Australian Army Sgt. Jake Fauser briefed the officials on some uncrewed aerial systems and radar capabilities being leveraged for detection and reconnaissance operations. He notably answered follow-up questions from Austin regarding the range and reach of the various assets.

On the sidelines of the event, Fauser told DefenseScoop about some of the drones on display.

“For our close-range reconnaissance we have the Black Hornet, which can move between that sort of zero-to-two-kilometer radius. In our intermediate we have our Parrot drone, which [operators can move up to four kilometers] — and then we have our Wasp capability that can punch from out to five [kilometers]. And we’re in the process of getting the Puma being a new long-range drone which can increase our capability out to 40 kilometers,” Fauser said.

In his view as a soldier, deepening partnerships in this way is boosting Australia’s national stability and security.

“It has been an excellent experience. Last year, my platoon was attached to an American combat team. Being able to experience the different ways that the Australian Army does things with the U.S. Marine Corps and learning off each other, being able to learn off each other, and then we’d be able to cover each other’s gaps in a future conflict, if the need is there,” Fauser told DefenseScoop.

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That large-scale modernization affair — Autonomous Warrior 2024 — marks AUKUS’ signature event this year and is part of the alliance’s new Maritime Big Play series of integrated trilateral experiments and exercises, two senior defense officials told a small group of reporters on a call Wednesday.

“Maritime Big Play allows AUKUS partners to practice fielding and maintaining thousands of uncrewed systems, gaining valuable experience operating in coalitions to solve realistic operational problems, such as improving undersea situational awareness,” said Madeline Mortelmans, acting assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities. 

The AUKUS alliance is structured around two pillars. 

While the first of those encompasses the co-development of a nuclear-powered submarine force for Australia, Pillar 2 focuses on the co-creation and deployments of emerging and disruptive military technologies.

Via Pillar 2, Mortelmans noted, AUKUS members are “implementing a fundamental shift to more closely integrate our systems and break down barriers to collaboration at every stage and in every part of our system.”

Broadly, the MBP series is designed to push forward the Pillar 2 objective to rapidly translate cutting-edge capabilities into practical, asymmetric assets delivered quickly to service members in the field. 

Through it, the international partners aim to collaboratively test and refine the alliance’s capacity to jointly operate uncrewed systems at sea, transmit and process intelligence and reconnaissance data from all three nations, and supply real-time maritime domain awareness to strengthen decision-making. 

“What we’ve been doing with this experimentation campaign is to ensure that when different gear shows up in the fight and into theater, it can be included seamlessly to provide common operating pictures and common control systems, and to ensure effects as and when we choose to have them as a coalition,” a senior defense official who joined Mortelmans but spoke on the condition of anonymity, told reporters on Wednesday. 

DefenseScoop asked the two officials whether any of the autonomous or other combat capabilities were identified by AUKUS participants as a tool that would make sense for more rapid fielding and use in military operations in the near term.

“Some of them already are,” the senior defense official said. “There are some systems — uncrewed surface vessels in Australia  — that have been put out on the ocean. And some of the things that we saw during this experimentation campaign was data coming back from those systems in real-time to maintain a common operating picture.”

They further told DefenseScoop: “Part of doing the Maritime Big Play is to see the realm of what’s available and to make those kinds of decisions. But at this point, we haven’t even completed the exercise, so no decisions have been taken to acquire or rapidly accelerate any system.” 

On the call, the two senior defense officials opted not to explicitly name any of the technology brands or companies that made the sensors, platforms, drones, or network and communications systems the U.S. brought to Autonomous Warrior 2024.

However, in an email from Australia shortly afterwards, Pentagon spokesperson Army Maj. Pete Nguyen shed more light on the exact prototypes and technologies America demonstrated during the event.

The list he provided includes, among others:

• High Altitude Balloons (HABs) that “augment the space domain by providing resilient communications in a denied environment from the stratosphere by carrying a range of mission capable payloads” — from Aerostar, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
• Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft (GARC), which are “low-cost attritable [small uncrewed  surface vehicles or sUSVs] that can deploy independently or as a formation … and provide an uncrewed means to respond to Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD)” — from MAPC, in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Sea Stalker sUSV that’s “designed to serve in multiple maritime missions to include reconnaissance, surveillance, intelligence collection” — from Swift Ships, a small business based in Morgan City, Louisiana.
• Triton “multi-model Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vessel capable of persistent operation in a contested environment with threat detection and evasion capabilities” — from Ocean Aero, a small business in Gulfport, Mississippi.
• A “Government-Owned, Non-Proprietary Common Control System” that gives “U.S. Navy uncrewed vehicles hardware and software that works across several different systems” and helps process data from sensor payloads.

“This is only the first in our series of experiments and demonstrations. Over time, Maritime Big Play will grow and evolve to reflect emerging technologies, new systems and new operational requirements,” Mortelmans told reporters Wednesday.

Notably, during that call she also mentioned that members of the Japanese military joined this round of Maritime Big Play experimentation as “observers.”

AUKUS leaders have made it clear that they are open to expanding the trilateral security partnership to include other nations — solely under Pillar 2, not Pillar 1 — to jointly strengthen the interoperability of their maritime drone systems. 

“Planning for the next exercise is underway. So the full details of what [Japan’s] participation will be in the future hasn’t yet been determined, but I think that they will move from being an observer to being a participant in the activity. And what a participant means could be bringing Japanese systems and platforms participating in that command-and-control architecture. There’s a wide range of opportunities and we’re really eager to explore those,” the senior defense official told DefenseScoop.

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Additionally, the partnership — launched in 2021 between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. — is also in ongoing consultations with Canada, New Zealand and Korea to pinpoint possible new areas of cooperation under AUKUS Pillar 2, which entails the co-development of disruptive defense technologies across six focus areas, members of Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin’s team confirmed last week ahead of AUKUS’ ministerial meetings in London.

However, considering the technical intricacies and security sensitivities associated with AUKUS Pillar 1, which underpins Australia’s acquisition of its own nuclear-powered attack submarine force and the rotational basing of U.S. and U.K. subs with the Pacific nation, extending that work to other countries might occur “decades from now” and likely won’t be happening anytime soon, a U.S. military official told DefenseScoop.

“Pillar 1 is a complex, multi-year effort that requires significant detail, commitment, and investment from all participating countries. You can’t begin the process, get halfway, and then decide to include others,” the official explained.

In discussions leading up to, on the sidelines of and immediately after AUKUS’ third formal set of bi- and trilateral meetups, hosted in the United Kingdom last week, defense officials shed light on the possibilities they envision for expanding elements of the technology-enabling partnership in the years to come.

“Under Pillar 2, we do see opportunities to offer other countries the ability to work with us on specific projects. There are countries that want to work with us that bring a lot to the table, and on a project-by-project basis, we will endeavor to work with those countries, ensuring that all the right [security and intellectual property protections] are taking place,” Austin said during a press briefing alongside his AUKUS counterparts on Sept. 26.

“We don’t take that for granted,” the U.S. defense secretary added.

During the open press portions of the formal ministerial gathering — which took place in different locations across the historic Royal Naval War College — Austin and his Australian and British counterparts made multiple announcements on recent progress via AUKUS.

The military chiefs spotlighted recent momentum they’re building in terms of amending their respective export control regimes — and particularly reforms to the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) — to make it easier for the partners’ industry players to share software, hardware and technical data in a safe and compliant manner.

Among a variety of updates on Pillar 1, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and British Defense Secretary John Healey revealed that negotiations will soon kick off between their nations to produce a bilateral treaty outlining their co-development plans to generate the planned next-generation submarines, named SSN-AUKUS, in the years ahead.

Pillar 2 announcements included the results of the first-ever AUKUS innovation challenge, which was facilitated by and with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.

Building on that success, Austin shared during the press conference that AUKUS innovation leads are now developing a “robust two-year agenda” to strengthen cooperation between their governments’ tech-focused centers of excellence.

“Over this past year, we’ve conducted several significant demonstrations and experiments across the ground, undersea, and along the electromagnetic spectrum. Taken together, all this progress will increase decision advantage for our warfighters. And we are excited to quickly field these new [and] advanced technologies across our forces,” Austin told reporters. 

“Our acquisition teams are driving integration throughout our industrial bases and our innovation ecosystems. This will maximize our combined ability to develop, produce, and sustain these capabilities together,” the U.S. defense secretary also said.

Since its rocky origin in Sept. 2021, AUKUS has been considered a key line of effort for “reinforcing deterrence” against China and promoting regional security within the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy. 

Some analysts have raised concerns that potential AUKUS expansion to include other nations — like New Zealand, Canada, Japan, or South Korea — might be viewed by the Chinese government as escalatory or provoke a response. 

As Austin alluded to, and other defense officials confirmed in chats with DefenseScoop, the partnership is looking to grow its capacity and reach, specifically for Pillar 2.

“We have a project that Japan is joining. And we’re in conversations with three other [countries],” a senior U.S. defense official said during a conversation previewing the trip. 

“But again, that’s exclusively on Pillar 2 and the emerging capabilities,” they emphasized.

When asked by DefenseScoop whether that could mean any alterations to the “AUKUS” acronym down the line, the senior official said: “I think we’ll probably keep the name AUKUS — but under the projects in Pillar 2, it’s open to looking for where we can work with additional partners to help achieve the outcomes of enabling the acceleration of critical advanced technologies.” 

At the same time, largely due to the highly sensitive nature of U.S.-built submarine combat systems technologies, it’s broadly been understood since AUKUS’ inception that the partnership would not be extended to other countries for any work or assets under Pillar 1.

“The only other country we’ve done this for is the U.K., highlighting the seriousness. At this stage, opening it to more countries isn’t possible — though that could be, decades from now,” a U.S. military official told DefenseScoop.

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During the trilateral security partnership’s third ministerial meet-up unfolding in London this week, defense leadership from each of the participating nations unveiled the companies from their respective hubs who came out on top of this new innovation contest. The pursuit was conducted by and with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.

Distributed Spectrum was awarded $150,000 in recognition of its radio frequency (RF) sensing platform, which is designed to help users better grasp adversarial activities from both operator and analyst levels.

The company was born out of a hackathon put on three years ago by DIU’s National Security Innovation Network (NSIN). Since then, it has secured more than $1.5 million in Defense Department contracts for its product.

“During the AUKUS EW Challenge, the Distributed Spectrum team thought through how we would apply our attritable sensing capability to monitor large regions of the Pacific,” the company’s CEO Alex Wulff said in a statement to DefenseScoop.

“This challenge helped us develop new concepts for both deploying our sensing capability and also aggregating data from hundreds or thousands of sensors deployed in the field,” Wulff added.

During a joint press briefing with his counterparts on Thursday, Austin said the leading companies from all three countries offer solutions to complex challenges associated with electronic warfare, targeting and protection.

The U.S. winner “is postured to provide critical capabilities which will strengthen AUKUS,” he said.

DIU, Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) and the United Kingdom’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) collectively launched this EW challenge in March as part of AUKUS Pillar 2.

Altogether across all three nations, 173 qualified companies applied to participate. 

Other finalists from the U.S. included Adaptive Dynamics Inc., Mithril Technologies Inc., Gambit Defense, and DataShapes AI.

Winners from Australia included Advanced Design Technology Pty Ltd, Inovor Technologies Pty Ltd and Penten Pty Ltd. Winners from the U.K. included Amiosec Ltd, University of Liverpool, Roke Manor Research Ltd and Autonomous Devices Ltd.

“The selection of these companies demonstrates the important contributions that our trilateral commercial sectors and innovation bases can make in addressing critical operational requirements,” officials at the ministerial said in a joint communique.

“The EW Challenge is an exciting first step in deepening partnerships with some of our closest allies, creating networks across our commercial and tech sectors, and building resilience across our industrial bases and supply chains,” DIU Director Doug Beck said in a statement.

“DIU is proud to contribute to these critical efforts with our AUKUS partners in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Beck said in a subsequent statement sent to DefenseScoop. “The solutions identified from each country will help address important parts of the EW challenge we all face, and will help us continue to build momentum together toward a stronger international innovation base that leverages the best technology across all of our countries, and that helps us meet our shared operational and strategic requirements, together.”

Senior defense officials did not immediately confirm the topic of the next AUKUS challenge.

Updated on Sept. 27, 2024, at 6:45 PM: This story has been updated to include additional comments from DIU Director Doug Beck.

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The news comes as defense leaders from the U.S., U.K., and Australia are gathering in London on Thursday to participate in the trilateral security partnership’s third official ministerial meetings, since its launch in 2021.

Via AUKUS, the nations aim to collaboratively modernize their military capabilities, transform procurement processes, and co-develop next-generation weapons to ultimately deter China.

The partnership’s activities are organized across two overarching “pillars.”

The first focuses on building out a conventionally armed nuclear submarine force for Australia. Meanwhile, Pillar 2 is all about speeding up the making and delivery of emerging capabilities to support joint operations in the Indo-Pacific region.

When AUKUS was unveiled in September 2021, four initial Pillar 2 capability categories were announced: cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and additional undersea assets.

About eight months later, in April 2022, AUKUS leadership added hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, innovation and information sharing, and electronic warfare to the Pillar 2 mix for acceleration.

During a press briefing to preview the third round of AUKUS ministerial meetings this week, two senior defense officials told DefenseScoop there’s a possibility that more capability areas could be covered in Pillar 2 down the line.

“I think we have a really robust program. There are six capability areas, as you know, from the initial announcements and subsequent announcements that we’re working across with those six areas. There’s also subsets and a bunch of projects underneath all of those, and there is openness to looking at more,” a senior U.S. defense official said.

However, they and their colleague did not confirm or elaborate upon exactly which additional technologies they’re eyeing to open up to acceleration at this point.

Still, they noted that about every four months, a senior AUKUS body gets together to vet new project proposals, some of which then get moved up for final approval.

“The additional technical areas that we get into will be driven by the project proposals AUKUS looks at that we begin to execute — because the six areas compared to just what we look at in defense critical tech is many other boxes or pillars of work that could be included in these projects,” the other official said.

During his brief opening statement in the first engagement of the AUKUS ministerial meeting on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also expressed his aims to continue to build momentum with his British and Australian counterparts around joint technology-driving collaboration through the trilateral security partnership.

“I look forward to talking today about how we can maximize our historic export control exemptions to bolster innovation and industrial cooperation. And we’ll discuss ways to work even more closely together to eliminate barriers to sharing information and technology,” Austin said.

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During those engagements — the bulk of which are set for Thursday — the secretary aims to discuss new plans to more deeply intertwine the nations’ innovation systems over the next two years to ultimately accelerate emerging technologies that will likely be needed in future fights, according to a U.S. defense official.

“We share a common understanding that we are stronger together. This meeting, the third of its kind, reinforces our commitment on the third anniversary,” Maj. Pete Nguyen told reporters ahead of the summit.

Originally launched in September 2021, AUKUS marks a unique arrangement through which the nations are working to collectively and simultaneously advance their weapons arsenals, improve interoperability of their systems and counter China’s extensive military forces in the Indo-Pacific region.

The AUKUS alliance is currently divided into two primary elements or “pillars.”

Pillar 1 is designed to support Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarine capability, while Pillar 2 is meant to enhance cooperation to speed up access to other advanced technologies with defense applications, such as artificial intelligence.

“AUKUS is much more than just submarines. In Pillar 2 we are building a more capable, combined joint force of the future by working across the full spectrum of capability development,” Nguyen noted.

Together, the allies’ procurement, science and technology and operational communities are now “generating requirements, co-developing new systems, deepening industrial base collaboration, and bolstering our innovation ecosystems,” he added.

In terms of tangible progress so far, Nguyen pointed to the recent joint pursuit via which the AUKUS partners deployed P-8A Poseidon aircraft capabilities and processed information from each country’s respective smart sonobuoys to boost maritime domain awareness.

He confirmed that, in addition to that collaboration, “this year, we are further advancing our undersea warfare capabilities by scaling the ability to launch and recover uncrewed underwater systems from torpedo tubes on current classes of British and American submarines that will increase the range and capability of our undersea forces.”

Regarding another high-priority area — long-range strike — Nguyen said the AUKUS members are working to expand their collective capacity to produce offensive and defensive hypersonic technologies through a robust series of trilateral tests and experiments.

“Our efforts are further strengthening the full range of our cyber, electronic and artificial intelligence capabilities. For example, we are now identifying new ways to deliver AI-enabled operational advantage across AUKUS joint missions,” he noted.

In March, the allies demonstrated the ability to train a mission-tailored AI model in real-time, and then deployed it to U.K. and Australian platforms mid-flight, Nguyen also said.

Much of the work has been supported by the International Joint Requirements Oversight Council (I-JROC), a forum set up to strategically pinpoint and validate joint and combined requirements.

“The I-JROC will ensure that capability development considers interchangeability and interoperability from the very start and that the capabilities developed under Pillar 2 solve the most pressing problems across our defense forces,” Nguyen said.

He confirmed to DefenseScoop that, during this ministerial meet-up, Pentagon leadership is also expecting an announcement about the first-ever AUKUS trilateral innovation challenge that was recently conducted by and with the Defense Innovation Unit.

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Under development by Northrop Grumman, DARC is an all-weather, ground-based radar system designed to detect and track objects moving through geosynchronous orbit — over 22,000 miles above the Earth’s equator. Expected to serve as a key capability for the U.S. military’s space domain awareness mission, the service plans to position three radars around the world as part of the AUKUS alliance between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

“With a growing number of space debris and objects now populating Earth’s orbit, DARC technologies detect small space objects and satellites quickly and with highly precise orbital information. DARC also identifies adversarial threats with the potential to disrupt/deny civil and military space services, making it a vital defense technology for the Space Force,” Col. Bryon McClain, program executive officer for space domain awareness and combat power, said in a statement Aug. 26.

Contracts posted on the Defense Department’s website Friday detail that the new award to Northrop Grumman will entail “design, integration, and testing of the second DARC radar site” that will be completed by February 2030.

According to the U.K. Ministry of Defence, DARC Site 2 will be located at Cawdor Barracks in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The military installation has been home to the British Army’s electronic warfare unit — 14 Signal Regiment — since 1995. In 2016, the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence announced that the military installation would close by 2028.

However, now that it will host DARC Site 2, Cawdor Barracks will remain open and undergo redevelopment to support the radar and up to 100 personnel who will operate and maintain it, according to the MOD.

“Space plays a crucial role in our daily lives — used by everything from our mobile phones to banking services. It is also used by UK Defence to conduct vital tasks such as supporting military operations, navigating forces and gathering intelligence,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement. “This new radar programme will not only enhance our awareness of deep space, but also help protect our space assets alongside our closest partners.”

The Space Force announced a trilateral agreement with the other two AUKUS nations in December 2023 that would allow the U.K. and Australia to each host and operate one of the next-generation radars within their borders. Together, the DARC radars will create a network of sensors and allow the three countries to jointly conduct space domain awareness operations.

“As the space domain rapidly evolves, we must continue taking deliberate steps to ensure our collective ability to operate safely, and our nations are uniquely positioned to provide that capability on a global scale,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement following the announcement of the trilateral agreement.

Current ground-based radars have limited capability in tracking objects in space during the day and are often affected by weather conditions. DARC is expected to give the Space Force and its partners global 24/7 coverage to detect, track, identify and analyze objects in deep space no matter the time of day or environmental conditions.

“The DARC Site 2 award expands Northrop Grumman’s support for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Domain Awareness (SDA) capabilities in an increasingly contested domain. This site brings us closer to achieving global coverage of deep space, which is a critical mission for future security of the U.S. and its allies,” Pablo Pezzimenti, the company’s vice president of integrated national systems, said in a statement Aug. 26.

The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $341 million contract in 2022 for the first DARC site, which will be located in Exmouth in Western Australia and is expected to be completed in 2026. The Space Force did not provide information as to where the third radar will be constructed in the United States, but the service has previously said all three systems will be completed by 2030.

Updated on Aug. 26, 2024, at 3:25 PM: This story has been updated to include statements from Space Force Col. Bryon McClain and Northrop Grumman’s Pablo Pezzimenti.

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Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh announced his departure Wednesday during a press briefing.

On Thursday, Denmark posted about it on social media.

“I have stepped down as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, where I had the honor to drive the development & implementation of #AUKUS,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

“I am deeply thankful for Secretary Austin’s leadership & confidence, and for the exceptional professionals with whom I had the honor to serve,” he added. “While my departure is bittersweet, I am excited for the future of #AUKUS.”

He also posted about the move on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Denmark held the job for nearly two years after being tapped in July 2022. He was previously senior vice president of programs and director of studies at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. He also worked at the Pentagon during the Obama administration, serving as deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia from 2015 to 2017.

Denmark did not disclose where he’s headed now, saying that updates on his next roles are forthcoming. The Pentagon hasn’t told DefenseScoop who will be performing the duties of senior adviser and coordinator for AUKUS following his exit.

AUKUS, which was established in 2021 to help the United States and two of its closest allies boost their high-tech military capabilities to counter China, has multiple “pillars” underpinning the partnership. Pillar one is centered around sharing advanced nuclear submarine technology with Australia. Pillar two is geared toward enhancing joint capabilities with emerging technologies including AI and autonomy, advanced cyber, hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, quantum, undersea warfare and electronic warfare.

In a statement in 2022 announcing Denmark’s hiring, the Pentagon said he was tasked to advise the secretary and “coordinate efforts across the Department to move rapidly in delivering on the promise of this historic partnership to help Australia establish a conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarine capability and to accelerate development of advanced capabilities to serve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”

In his LinkedIn post Thursday, Denmark highlighted the March 2023 announcement of the so-called Pillar I Optimal Pathway by President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in San Diego, as a key development during his tenure

“I am also deeply proud of all that has been accomplished in #AUKUS Pillar II, including new innovation challenges led by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and generational changes to the U.S. export control regime with Australia and the UK that will allow seamless defense cooperation within AUKUS,” he said.

Singh said: “We want to thank Abe for his leadership, building strong coalitions, bringing us even closer to two of our closest allies, the U.K. and Australia, and for strengthening security across the Indo-Pacific. He was a key architect of the AUKUS Pillar One optimal pathway announced by the president and the prime ministers, and instrumental in developing advanced capability cooperation in AUKUS Pillar Two. On behalf of the secretary of defense, we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Updated on June 13, 2024, at 1:50 PM: This story was updated to include comments from Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

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