Australia diversifies AUKUS into advanced capabilities such as hypersonics
The Dart CMP will almost double the top speed of the Dart AE pictured here, which is due to launch next year. (Hypersonix Launch Systems)
AUKUS is about far more than giving Australia nuclear-powered submarines, with the three countries announcing a wide portfolio of defence collaboration.
AUKUS got off to a spectacular start on 15 September 2021 when Australia revealed it would buy nuclear-powered submarines instead of diesel-electric boats from France’s Naval Group. Still, there is now a bevy of other areas of collaboration underway.
On 5 April, the trilateral AUKUS partners of Australia, the UK and US released a fact sheet outlining diversified areas of military cooperation between the three allies. Chief among them are advanced hypersonic and counter-hypersonic weapon capabilities.
For example, in a related development, on 29 March an Australian consortium was awarded an A$2.95 million ($2.19 million) grant to research reusable hypersonic
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