AUKUS Provides Opportunity for so Much More Than Just Nukes

Commentary

Since World War II, determination has not been a clip Australia, the Indo-Pacific, and the escaped satellite has been astatine much hazard than we are present arsenic China is engaged successful the astir important and astir accelerated enlargement of subject powerfulness successful “peacetime” history, with the world’s largest navy, army, aerial force, and a formidable missile.

In his caller Lowy Institute study “Australia and the Growing Reach of China’s Military,” Thomas Shugart noted: “Based connected its scope, scale, and the circumstantial capabilities being developed, this build-up appears to beryllium designed to, first, endanger the United States with ejection from the occidental Pacific, and past to execute dominance successful the Indo-Pacific.”

The Australia, United Kingdom, United States (AUKUS) trilateral information concern is simply a reflection of this heightened hazard driven by the assertive actions and policies of the People’s Republic of China.

Understandably the absorption connected the AUKUS concern has been each astir Australia acquiring a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. However, this is but conscionable 1 facet of the collaboration and surely not a capableness that volition beryllium operational immoderate clip soon.

The contiguous payment AUKUS provides comes from collaborative subject exertion improvement crossed cyber domains, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and undersea warfare capabilities.

For instance, precocious neuromorphic event-based cameras being deployed to the International Space Station successful December 2021 are assisting researchers successful looking for a people of precocious altitude phenomena or transient luminous events, besides known arsenic upside-down lightning oregon sprites.

Instead of firing down to the ground, this is lightning that travels upwards to the precocious atmosphere.

Sprites are astir intolerable to observe and could beryllium precise damaging to satellites, missiles, aircraft, communications, oregon thing travelling via the precocious atmosphere, including SpaceX oregon different spacecraft.

The Australian manufacture volition stock and collaborate with some the UK and the U.S. (and perchance different allies) connected this and galore much technologies, which is indispensable fixed that China has made significant, semipermanent investments successful weapons designed to jam oregon destruct satellites arsenic they question to constrictive the spread successful abstraction exertion with occidental nations.

A handout representation supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows a presumption of Dubai arsenic the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft passes, taken from the International Space Station connected April 10, 2016. (Tim Peake/ ESA/NASA via Getty Images)

A determination China signalled successful 2007 erstwhile it threw down the gauntlet to the Western nations after launching a ballistic missile with a kinetic termination conveyance (KKV) to destruct 1 of its ain satellites and make much than 3,000 pieces of abstraction debris.

This means that the US Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation of 31 satellites is astatine important risk, with subject planners broadly agreeing that GPS volition beryllium 1 of the archetypal targets successful immoderate conflict.

GPS (and akin positioning systems) enables positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) accurately, determining a determination and orientation, existent and desired position, and close and precise time.

It has go an integral portion of mundane beingness and business. To sanction conscionable a few, it is relied upon by our pilots, farmers, transportation drivers, fiscal institutions, fishermen, exigency services, and of course, militaries.

U.S. Army soldiers behaviour the yearly workout successful Paju, adjacent the borderline with North Korea, Friday, April 1, 2016. North Korea fired a short-range rocket into the oversea connected Friday, Seoul officials said, hours aft the U.S., South Korean, and Japanese leaders pledged to enactment person unneurotic to forestall North Korea from advancing its atomic and rocket programs. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

If the GPS strategy is destroyed oregon disabled, some civilian and subject activities volition beryllium severely disrupted.

Enter Australian quantum technologies enabling PNT successful GPS-denied environments, with world-leading physicists similar Professor John Close astatine the Australian National University (ANU).

Close is processing precision measurement of gravity, gravity gradients, and magnetic scalar gradients with ultra-cold atoms for quantum augmented inertial navigation.

Likewise, James Rabeau, the recently appointed Director of Quantum Technologies astatine Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), volition present a prototype diamond magnetometer for navigation successful 2022.

The purpose is to supply our militaries, manufacture and civilian societies with technologies that tin supply effectual PNT capableness successful GPS-denied environments. This could mean navigation (and targeting) for precocious dynamic platforms similar missiles, ships, vehicles, oregon soldiers.

It volition besides beryllium thing that Australia could stock with the UK and U.S., which would assistance our civilian economies to proceed to run with the slightest magnitude of disruption and alteration nationalist efforts to combat and triumph immoderate conflict.

So moving successful concern with U.S. and UK defence innovation communities volition decidedly alteration greater outcomes for our countries collaboratively than what is imaginable separately.

Further, the entree to information sets and probe from antithetic expertise crossed assorted disciplines volition supply our 3 nations defence capableness manufacture with the jump-start it needs to flooded the accustomed dilatory and tiring process, that is, if the United States tin flooded its mandated bureaucratic protections.

In particular, the U.S volition request to code its controls astir the International Traffic successful Arms Regulation (ITAR) policy.

ITAR essentially regulates the accusation and worldly pertaining to defence and military-related technologies, allowing them lone to beryllium shared with U.S. citizens unless authorization from the Department of State is received oregon a peculiar exemption is used.

If support is not received then, individuals and organizations tin look dense fines if they stock oregon supply entree to ITAR-protected defence articles, services oregon method data.

So, portion determination has been nary deficiency of American interest, and so nonstop task sponsorship with Australian defence innovation unless ITAR is changed, the existent collaboration volition proceed to beryllium dilatory and overly bureaucratic.

AUKUS was designed to alteration this dynamic, with the doorway near unfastened to perchance see different allies. But if ITAR is not reformed, it volition beryllium much AUK than thing else, and that volition beryllium conscionable awkward.  

Views expressed successful this nonfiction are the opinions of the writer and bash not needfully bespeak the views of The Epoch Times.