Patience, please. AUKUS Pillar 2 is indeed making progress

Published on April 24, 2024



AUKUS Pillar 2 has a PR problem—and no, not just among sceptical regional partners.  

Compared with evident progress on Australia’s future submarine capabilities under Pillar 1, analysts have often decried a lack of detail or engagement around Pillar 2, which is aimed at wider defence-technology cooperation. Despite efforts to spotlight trilateral innovation activities in the past 12 months, the absence of clear metrics for success, let alone a shiny new trilaterally developed capability carrying an AUKUS sticker, have led some to contend that Pillar 2 is falling short. 

This has contributed to skewed assumptions about what constitutes success for Pillar 2. On closer inspection, Pillar 2 is actually making substantial progress, both in necessarily preparing the field for future cooperation by harmonising regulatory and policy settings and by maximising operational efficiency and interchangeability of advanced capabilities already in service. 

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