The armies of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States will be central to operations under Pillar 2 of AUKUS, the nations’ security partnership aimed at bolstering defense capabilities and promoting stability in the Indo-Pacific, military leaders say.
Pillar 1 of the trilateral pact focuses on providing Australia with conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, while Pillar 2 encompasses advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, hypersonics and autonomous mobility.
“Initiatives like Project Convergence, where AUKUS nations work together to test and implement new concepts and technologies in real-world scenarios, are vital for building interoperability and refining joint tactics,” Gen. Randy A. George, chief of staff of the U.S. Army, said during a March 2024 talk with his Australian and U.K. counterparts hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Project Convergence Capstone 4 (PCC4) is a U.S. Army-led initiative to enhance military capabilities through advanced technology and interoperability with allies, specifically Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. During the PCC4 exercise in the U.S. in February and March 2024, the AUKUS armies tested integration of layered defense systems and other capabilities to enhance weapons systems and force protection, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
As the exercise demonstrated, advanced sensors and communications empower battlefield interoperability among the three armies “at machine speed,” Gen. Patrick Sanders, chief of the general staff of the British Army, said at the CSIS event.
Australian and U.K. officers will embed with the U.S. Army’s Hawaii-based 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) in mid-2024 to collaborate on advanced technology under Pillar 2, according to Defense News magazine. The 3rd MDTF’s Multi-Domain Effects Battalion includes cyber, electronic warfare, intelligence and communications units and is tasked with integrating those capabilities into the joint force.
“This is what I’ll call the sort of initial seed corn of creating that combined capability,” U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Charles Flynn told Defense News. “I believe these formations and the contributions at least from those two countries are absolutely complementary and will accelerate a lot of activities and a lot of work that we need to do together in AUKUS Pillar 2.”
Under Pillar 2, the AUKUS partners’ land forces also are cooperating to extend and enhance strike capabilities, known as long-range fires, the nations’ defense ministers said in an April 2024 statement.
“The game changer from a land-domain contribution to that combined multidomain force is the ability to apply fires at strategic and operationally relevant ranges,” Lt. Gen. Simon Stuart, chief of the Australian Army, said at CSIS.
“And it’s our job as military professionals, as leaders of our respective armies, to ensure that we are doing our part to generate collective capability as part of that combined multidomain force to provide the governments and the communities that we serve with options to demonstrate collective capability that gives effect, gives expression, to collective will,” Stuart said.
