The Biden administration announced an expansion of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States partnership Tuesday to include the development of hypersonic and counter-hypersonic weapons systems.
The announcement comes roughly seven months after the AUKUS partnership was launched, with the clear goal of helping Australia develop a nuclear submarine fleet to counter China’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We are fully committed to establishing a robust approach to sharing naval propulsion technology with Australia that strengthens the global non-proliferation regime,” the three countries said in a joint statement Tuesday afternoon. “We also committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen cooperation on defense innovation.”
White House officials said the hypersonic systems “will add to our existing efforts to deepen cooperation on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities.”
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The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force carried out a successful test of a hypersonic missile developed by Lockheed Martin in mid-March. Hypersonic missile technology has existed for decades, but DARPA said these new missiles will fly with increased maneuverability, allowing the military to strike targets with a significantly higher level of precision.
“This Lockheed Martin HAWC flight test successfully demonstrated a second design that will allow our warfighters to competitively select the right capabilities to dominate the battlefield,” the Biden administration wrote in a statement. “We are still analyzing flight test data, but are confident that we will provide the U.S. Air Force and Navy with excellent options to diversify the technology available for their future missions.”
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Defense officials said the test was not immediately disclosed due to fears of escalating tensions with Russia amid its war in Ukraine, where Moscow has reportedly used hypersonic missiles to strike at civilian and government targets.
