First it was AUKUS but now it's Pillar 2

 While much of the attention around AUKUS has come from the decision to give nuclear submarine technology to Australia and the development of an AUKUS-class sub for use by both London and Canberra, there has also been quieter discussion around what is known as AUKUS Pillar 2. That involves co-development on technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyber, undersea capabilities, hypersonic weapons, information-sharing and electronic warfare (EW).

The potential for other countries to join up for Pillar 2 — New Zealand has openly discussed the idea, although it is politically sensitive — is seen in Washington as a way to expand US military relations in the region.

Even though it’s not formally a subject on the agenda for any panel at the upcoming UK-based Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) expo 2023, the massive trilateral security arrangement known as AUKUS is sure to be on the minds of officials and industry players there, especially as more attention has been drawn to the agreement’s future-tech-heavy Pillar 2.

A senior US official hinted at a major announcement coming from the Biden White House sometime in the next few months, but DSEI could play host to new clues about Pillar 2, or about how the international partners are working through export control issues for nuclear-powered submarine tech.

As the US-based Center for Strategic & International Studies  (CSIS) states: 

"If Pillar One was historic, then Pillar Two promises to be revolutionary. According to the bureaucratic language of the AUKUS announcement, the purpose of Pillar Two is to 'enhance our joint capabilities and interoperability.' Yet the scope of the original agreement was massive, covering “cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities.” A few months after the initial announcement, four more areas were added to these 'advanced capabilities:' hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities, EW, innovation, and information sharing.

Individually, each area of Pillar Two has game-winning potential in the strategic competition with China. Taken together, they could be game-changing, securing the future military and economic advantage of the AUKUS nations and recasting the nature of this competition for global influence. As an article by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) puts it:

'There’s a growing realisation that emerging and critical technologies will be extraordinarily important for societies, economies and national security.

This is making the race to master them a geopolitical issue. And nowhere is this race more contested than in the Indo-Pacific region, which incubates much of the world’s technological innovation and has become a hotbed of strategic technological competition.'

Read more here.

Already there are major concerns that Australia lacks adequate ethical restraints on its booming development of autonomous weapons that kill with minimal human input. In its August 2023 article, "Killing by Algorithm" Declassified Australia highlighted that the AUKUS Pillar 2 heavily involves autonomous weapons systems being developed in Australia partially via universities such as the University of Melbourne. The advanced capabilities pillar was recently showcased in a joint ‘autonomy trial’ hosted by the UK, with collaboration of all three AUKUS militaries at the testing. This is just the outset of collaboration on AI-enabled capabilities through the alliance. Declassifies Australia stated:

 "STELaRLab is a partnership between the University of Melbourne and controversial international arms company, Lockheed Martin, which has been accused of complicity in war crimes. A core area of work for STELaRLab is autonomy, robotics research and development. A student activist group in Australia, Lockout Lockheed Martin, protested against the partnership involving university collaboration in weapons production. 

Given the nature of autonomy-related technologies, it’s hard for university students to know the end-use of their projects or research when these are in collaboration with arms companies or defence. Some students who are concerned about these ethical risks will turn down opportunities to work on projects connected to defence, while others lack awareness and ethics education in fields such as computer science." 

Universities comprise a huge network in themselves of weapons company partnerships. Schools as well: On 19 June, the Defence Department launched its Nuclear-Powered Submarine Propulsion Challenge, for years 7 – 12 students across the nation. The program seeks to engage the enthusiasm of young people for the complex and hugely controversial nuclear submarine program, in the hope that some of the students will want to contribute to this form of war-fighting when they leave school. The program fits with the growing prevalence of private weapons company-sponsored STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) programs in schools. The militarisation of STEM education is not confined to our schools either. The National Youth Science Forum has as its primary sponsor Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest weapons maker. The Questacon National Science and Technology Centre in Canberra receives major funding for its Engineering is Elementary program from the Defence Department, with ADF engineers being actively involved in delivering the program.

Another Pillar 2 focus is the development of  Directed energy (DE). The Albanese government recently declared DE technology a priority in its $3.4 billion Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) program. Over the past three years, the Pentagon has reportedly invested an average of $1 billion annually in developing DE technology, an area of research spanning several decades for the United States and other nations. A few days ago an example of  DE technology was tested in far western NSW (at Klondyke Range Complex, located approximately 800 kilometers northwest of Sydney) involving a lethal laser system being employed to intercept an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone.