WASHINGTON (Agencies): The U.S. is set to step up its technology partnerships with Australia in the coming months with an AUKUS-related announcement in the fall, the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) chief technology officer announced.
As part of the Australia, US, and United Kingdom sub-development agreement, US President Joe Biden will announce a new agreement on a “critical technology”, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu told reporters. “We’re flushing out the details on the critical technology, so it will be more of a portfolio approach rather than ‘here’s all these technology on the table’,” she said, adding that she proposed the collaboration to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Senior leaders announced that Pillar 2 efforts had begun for AUKUS in June 2023. At the time, unmanned systems and artificial intelligence (AI) were areas of early focus, said Admiral Michael Gilday (retd), former US chief of naval operations.