Artist’s rendering of the AGM-183A ARRW hypersonic missile. Photo: Lockheed Martin.
August 12, 2023. A top Pentagon official said that Australia’s vast territory makes it an excellent choice as future testing ground for advanced hypersonic and long-range precision weapons under the the AUKUS pact.
AUKUS – the acronym for the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, saw Canberra’s role extending beyond financial contributions.
The pact which has the main objective of supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, has evolved to address the growing influence of China in the Asia-Pacific region.
U.S. Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth said it has always been a challenge for the United States to find open spaces to test its weapons and Australia obviously has something unique to offer on the table when it comes to fulfilling this challenging role.
“Australia obviously has a tremendous amount of territory where that testing is a little bit more doable, so I think that’s a unique thing … that the Australians bring to the table,” Christine Wormuth, U.S. Secretary of the Army said.
Signed in late 2021, the AUKUS deal serves as a strategic response to counter China’s increasing dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.
Besides nuclear-powered submarines, the deal has broadened its scope to include advanced technologies such as long-range precision firing, artificial intelligence, and hypersonic weapons.
If the plan succeeds, US will follow the United Kingdom’s footsteps in using Australia as a future firing range wherein British troops conducted 12 nuclear weapons tests in Australia between 1952 and 1958.
At present, Russia and China are winning the hypersonic arms race while the US considers Beijing the world leader in hypersonic technology.
China has accused the US of using AUKUS deal to trigger confrontration with Beijing.
Chinese officials called the military pact a ‘path of error and danger’ that will only fuel the arms race and nuclear proliferation.
