UK to work with US and Australia to develop hypersonic missiles

The UK, US and Australia have agreed to work together on both hypersonic and anti-hypersonic weaponry as the three nations reiterated their “unwavering commitment” to an international system that “respects human rights”.

The countries’ leaders, UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, US president, Joe Biden, and Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, issued a statement on Tuesday that came as a part of the Aukus military pact.

The Aukus deal, announced last September, initially focused on sharing nuclear submarine development in the Pacific as concerns over China grew.

Now the attention has turned to Russia after the invasion began in February and new areas of cooperation have been added to the deal. These include on hypersonic weapon technology, which is said to have been used recently by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine.

Mr Johnson previously suggested that the alliance could go beyond just surrounding submarines, and, on Tuesday, the trio of countries committed to “commence new trilateral co-operation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen co-operation on defence innovation.”

In a statement, the Aukus leaders said: “We reaffirmed our commitment to Aukus and to a free and open Indo-Pacific. In light of Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified, and unlawful invasion of Ukraine, we reiterated our unwavering commitment to an international system that respects human rights, the rule of law, and the peaceful resolution of disputes free from coercion.”

The statement continued: “We also committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen cooperation on defence innovation.

“These initiatives will add to our existing efforts to deepen cooperation on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities.

“As our work progresses on these, and other critical defence and security capabilities, we will seek opportunities to engage allies and close partners.”

The three leaders went on to add that they were “pleased with the progress” Australia was making in the development of nuclear-powered submarines.

The initial announcement of the Aukus pact did not go down well in Paris, due to the fact that the submarine deal came at the expense of an agreement between Australia and France to provide diesel-electric boats.