Australia Wants AUKUS Tech Transfer Treaty pre-Trump

Richard Wood, for Australia’s 9news, reports in part  , May 17, 2023,

[Australia’s] “Defence Minister Richard Marles [warned May 17, 2023] the full potential of the AUKUS agreement can only be fulfilled with a "seamless" exchange of technology and information between Australia and the US. 

Australia will spend up to $368 billion by 2055 to [buy 3 to 5 second hand Virginia SSNs and] build a new fleet of eight nuclear-propelled submarines in Adelaide to enter service in the 2040s under the landmark defence pact signed by Australia, the US and Britain.

But a secondary part of AUKUS also calls for cooperation on other defence technologies, such as undersea warfare, hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence.

In a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Adelaide today, Marles said the government is "focused on developing asymmetric technologies that will help deter future conflicts".

But the exchange of technologies between the US and Australia faced "vast and complex" barriers, such as US export controls, he said.

"What is really clear is that if we are to realise the ambition of AUKUS, the transfer of technology and information between Australia and the US needs to be seamless," he said.

[as well as US Virginia and future UK SSNs] “… Priorities are hypersonic missiles, directed energy, autonomous systems, quantum technology, information warfare and long-range firepower…”

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Pete Comment

My hunch is that Australia is angling for a comprehensive tech transfer treaty like the 1958 UK–US Mutual Defence Agreement. That 1958 UK-US bilateral treaty centered on nuclear submarine technology and nuclear explosives. Hence: 

“The treaty provided for the sale to the UK of one complete nuclear submarine propulsion plant, as well as ten years' supply of enriched uranium to fuel it. Other nuclear material was also acquired from the US under the treaty. Some 5.4 tonnes of UK-produced plutonium was sent to the US in return for 6.7 kilograms (15 lb) of tritium and 7.5 tonnes of highly enriched uranium (HEU) between 1960 and 1979, but much of the HEU was used not for weapons but as fuel for the growing fleet of British nuclear submarines. The treaty paved the way for the Polaris Sales Agreement, and the Royal Navy ultimately acquired entire weapons systems, with the UK Polaris programme and Trident nuclear programme using American missiles with British nuclear warheads.”

Australia is not providing Tritium to the US. Rather Australia is proving cutting edge, third generation SILEX Laser Enrichment of Uranium technology to the US. A SILEX Enrichment plant is planned for Paducah, Kentucky, as a type of “reverse AUKUS”, Australia to US, tech transfer.

Australia probably wants to secure this comprehensive AUKUS tech transfer treaty in the little time Biden may remain President. Already the Republican dominated US House of Representatives may make such a treaty a long shot. What may kill such a treaty is a return to an alliance disrespecting Trump Administration after the November 2024 elections.

A wide range of Australian defence experts, academics, former defence officials and former defence chiefs consider the AUKUS submarine deals to have been politically rushed, ie. while Biden is still President. They want extensive government enquiries with public access. 

It is understandable, however, that AUKUS sub advocates in the Australian Government do not want too much SSN decision-making falling and failing within an Isolationist Trump Presidential Term from January 2025.