WASHINGTON --- More work is needed to break down bureaucratic barriers to technology sharing in the second pillar of a trilateral defense agreement between Australia, Britain and the United States, British and Australian defense officials said on Wednesday.
Shimon Fhima, director of Strategic Programmes at Britain's Ministry of Defence, made the comment referring to part of the 2021 AUKUS agreement dealing with advanced technology programs such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.
Speaking at a virtual event hosted by Washington's Center for a New American Security think tank ahead of an expected announcement of a way forward on AUKUS after an 18-month consultation period, Fhima cautioned that their adversaries did not share such bureaucratic constraints.
He said the political will was "absolutely there to ensure that the barriers that we have are broken through," but this took time.
Referring to the so-called Pillar One of the AUKUS agreement - under which Australia is to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, Fhima added: "The willingness to share really sensitive technologies and capabilities in Pillar One; if we can do that, and we can do that at pace, we must be able to do that in Pillar Two."
Asked if enough progress was being made in Pillar Two, Stephen Moore, first assistant secretary of defense industry policy at Australia's Department of Defense, said there was "a frustration, I think amongst all of us, that our bureaucratic processes need to be better." (end of excerpt)
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Reports are increasingly surfacing about the difficulties of implementing the AUKUS agreement, which is noteworthy as a report on the AUKUS way formard is due to be published by Australia this month.
Today's The Times reports that "Australia is reluctant to acquire British nuclear submarines, instead opting for those made in America, according to the country’s opposition leader and former defence minister."
If this is true, and since the US does not have any submarine-building capacity so spare, the AUKUS deal appears to be dead in the water.
By implication, france's Naval Group would be left in a favorable position, as only builder to have the design (French Navy's Barracuda SSN), the potential capacity (originally set up to build Shortfin Barracuda subs for Australia) and a two-year head-start).
The only other option would be for Australia to opt out of submarine operations altogether.)
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