Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress his Department has made on the implementation of pillar two of the Australia – United Kingdom – United States (AUKUS) partnership.

Good progress is being made on the trilateral development of quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI) and Autonomy, cyber, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, and electronic warfare capabilities, supported by two enabling workstreams covering innovation and information sharing.

In April, the first AUKUS AI and autonomy trial was held in the UK. This saw the initial joint deployment of Australian, UK, and US AI-enabled assets in a collaborative swarm to detect and track military targets in a representative environment in real time. This trial demonstrated the military advantage of AUKUS advanced capabilities.