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Agence France-Presse

Australia could be a testing ground for US hypersonic and other long-range precision weapons under the Aukus alliance, a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
US Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said Australia’s contribution to the three-way Aukus agreement, which includes Britain, “doesn’t always have to be dollars”.
The pact was signed in late 2021 and is seen as a way of countering China’s growing clout in the Asia-Pacific region.
Work under Aukus has so far focused on supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, a fleet capable of travelling stealthily over vast distances and striking foes at long range.
But the pact is increasingly focused on developing advanced capabilities such as long-range precision firing, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.
Wormuth said Australia could be the platform to test these weapons.
‘Dangerous precedent’: Aukus nuclear sub loophole causes proliferation fears
“One thing Australia has in spades is long distances and relatively unpopulated land,” she said in a telephone interview from Washington.
“A challenge for us in the United States when it comes to hypersonics or even some of our things like the precision strike missile – which is not a hypersonic weapon but has very long ranges in some of its increments – for us to find open spaces in the United States where we can actually test these weapons, it’s a challenge,” Wormuth said.
“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, as an example, that the Australians bring to the table.”

China has denounced the Aukus pact as undermining peace in the region – a charge that the US, Australia and Britain reject.
But critics have also asked whether it is truly cooperative, or whether the US, because of its size and overwhelming military power, will dominate.
Wormuth said she expected the two smaller partners to pitch in and “have skin in this game – and they do”.
“The sense I got certainly from talking to senior Australian officials is they’re not doing this to make us happy, they’re not doing this just for fun,” said the Pentagon official, who visited Australia last week for the Talisman Sabre multinational military exercise.
“They’re doing this because they see it as in their own national interest in terms of being able to meet the different challenges that they see in the theatre.”
Australia ‘confident’ on getting subs as US attacks China’s Pacific ‘bullying’
Facing Russia’s war in Europe, threats from North Korea and a more bellicose China, the US has sought to bolster its defence alliances and put more advanced capabilities into the hands of allies like Australia, Ukraine and Taiwan.
For much of the Cold War, it was Washington’s policy to be able to fight two major wars at once.
Wormuth admitted that today, budget constraints, US public opinion and the relative strength of Russia and China make such a doctrine impossible.
“I think there is a recognition that when you look at the size of our military, when you look at the size of the defence budget that the American taxpayer is willing to pay for, we … don’t plan to fight more than one major war at a time,” she said.
Instead, the US hopes its alliance and nuclear arsenal will “discourage opportunistic aggression”.
“Given the sophistication of the Russian military and the Chinese military today, to try to size our military to hypothetically handle two wars at a time would be prohibitively expensive”.


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Australia

Aukus: US eyes Australia as test site for missiles to counter China

A missile launched from a US HIMARS system during joint military drills with Australia in Shoalwater Bay on July 22, 2023. Photo: AFP

US Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, centre, with senior US and Australian military officials. Photo: US Army/AFP

Australia’s bid to become a ‘multilateral player’ in Indo-Pacific at risk over lack of funding

Australian soldiers load supplies onto HMAS Adelaide at the Port of Brisbane before departing for Tonga in January 2022, after a volcano eruption. Photo: Australia Defence Force via AP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo: EPA-EFE

Australian officials carry boxes containing doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Port Moresby international airport in Papua New Guinea in March 2021. Photo: AFP

Shangri-La Dialogue: Australia says Aukus is ‘transparent’, questions secrecy around China’s military build-up

Australian submarines docked at a naval base in Perth, Western Australia. Photo: EPA-EFE

Australian defence minister Richard Marles (centre) at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Does Australia really want to be at the front line of US aggression against China?

A missile launch in northern Australia as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre, the largest combined training activity between the Australian Defence Force and the United States military, in Shoalwater Bay on July 22. Photo: AFP

(Left to right) Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin attend a press conference after the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations at Government House in Brisbane, Australia, on July 29. Photo: EPA-EFE

Death knell sounds for Australian diplomacy in the region after US ministerial talks

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin (centre) is followed by Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles as they inspect the military guard during a meeting ahead of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations in Brisbane, on July 28. Photo: Bloomberg

Australia ‘confident’ on getting Aukus submarines as US attacks China’s ‘bullying behaviour’ in Pacific

Australian submarines docked at a naval base in Perth. Photo: EPA-EFE

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, right, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brisbane, Australia, on Friday. Photo: via AP

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A top Pentagon official says Australia could provide the ground to test US hypersonic and other advanced weapons under Aukus pact
The proposal comes as the US faces challenge to find open spaces to test these weapons


Australia could be the site to test advanced US missiles as the Pentagon seeks to expand the country’s role under the Aukus pact and counter China’s clout in the region.
