In a significant expansion of the AUKUS agreement, the US, UK and Australia are collaborating on a groundbreaking space surveillance initiative, signifying the bloc’s emerging space-power capabilities.
This month, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that the US, UK and Australia have agreed to establish advanced space-tracking radar sites in their countries as part of a significant new initiative that will expand the AUKUS agreement.
The source notes that the three countries will host and operate the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), a state-of-the-art ground-based radar system, by the decade’s end. It says DARC provides a way to strengthen the US Space Force’s domain awareness, which officials have said must be improved as the number of satellites and debris in orbit increases.
According to the source, the DARC system presents advanced sensitivity, accuracy, capacity, and tracking agility. It outperforms current radars that can monitor objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).
It says its ability to provide global monitoring extends beyond inclement weather and daylight, which are limitations of current ground-based optical systems. It notes that the AUKUS agreement, initially conceived as a pact to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, now stretches from undersea to outer space.
Air & Space Forces Magazine says the first site will be in Western Australia and is expected to be operational in 2026, with two more places, one in the UK and one in the US, to follow by the end of the decade. The source notes that the locations of the countries are “optimally positioned” for the DARC system, which Northrop Grumman will build.
The source notes that DARC is a real-world example of how the US increasingly relies on partners not involved in military space operations just a few years ago. It says the project focuses on ensuring that American, British and Australian warfighters can see what’s happening, understand what’s happening, make decisions, and act with decisive advantage.
The extensive sharing of sensitive technologies characterizes the high-tech AUKUS bloc. This relationship can only happen in the tightest of alliances, with the shared history, culture, language, and political values among the US, UK and Australia facilitating unparalleled high-level trust.
Pillar 2
This month, Asia Times reported that the US is pushing for AUKUS Pillar 2, focusing on advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, autonomy, electronic warfare, hypersonics, and quantum technologies.
Critical aspects of Pillar 2 include AI integration on submarine-hunting aircraft and testing of unmanned gear. That shift to non-nuclear capabilities may also encompass space capabilities.
AUKUS Pillar 2 could also enable other anglophone countries including Canada and New Zealand to join the emerging defense bloc. However, high costs have previously precluded Canada’s membership. New Zealand may have reservations about joining the bloc due to sovereignty concerns, its emphasis on non-nuclear security, and building closer ties with Pacific nations.
In line with AUKUS Pillar 2, DARC may complement Australia’s efforts to increase its space-based capabilities. In March, Asia Times reported that the Australian Ministry of Defense plans to build a “satellite mesh” capable of communicating between satellites and friendly ground units.
The mesh will be designed to be scalable, rapidly deployable, and re-constitutable. Australia’s planned satellite mesh is envisaged to be capable of tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles, resisting electronic warfare and cyberattacks, and transmitting and receiving data from anywhere globally.
In addition, Asia Times reported in March 2022 that Australia has established a new Defense Space Command to develop space-based military capabilities to protect its satellites against perceived adversaries such as China and Russia. Similar to the US Space Force, the unit aims to enhance its space capabilities and collaborate with other countries to maintain safety and security in space.
While Australia has extensive collaboration with the US in space, it needs to accelerate the development of space capabilities to deal with space threats and increase the resilience of its space-based capabilities.
AUKUS may be setting its sights on space as a critical connector and enabler among the bloc’s members. In a September 2022 paper for the Australian National University, Philip Citowicki noted that AUKUS could bolster the resilience of US, UK and Australian space-based assets.
Citowicki says AUKUS can provide viable space-based capabilities across its members’ supply chains through increased technology-sharing and improved engagement with commercial operators.
He says that as great-power competition reaches space, potential AUKUS adversaries such as China and Russia have seen the US dependence on space as an “Achilles’ heel,” rapidly developing counter-space technologies such as anti-satellite missiles, hunter-killer satellites, directed-energy weapons, electronic warfare, and cyber-warfare.
Citowicki says the AUKUS partnership could mitigate space-based threats by expanding low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, streamlining mutual access to launch facilities, and supporting one another’s domestic space manufacturing capabilities. Given that, DARC provides redundancy to AUKUS’ space-based systems, with land-based sensors being larger and more powerful than space-based ones.
These developments underscore that AUKUS space power is gradually taking shape. For the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference (AMOS) this year, Nathaniel Dailey of the MITRE Corporation and Space Force Association proposes a Space Information Sharing Ecosystem (SISE) under the AUKUS framework designed to increase collective space capacity, capability, and resiliency.
Dailey describes AUKUS’ space power as collaborative, having mutually supporting core structures and capabilities, aiming for long-term operational advantages, streamlined policy coordination and systems, fostering direct and practical collaboration beyond policy alignment, and built on trust and mutual benefit.
He also recommends that AUKUS leverage advanced technologies for a decisive space advantage. Aside from that, Dailey says AUKUS should align the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) geostrategic concept with the peaceful use of space.
He says AUKUS should work to streamline information-sharing among its members and reaffirm its commitment to other countries by demonstrating peaceful, sustainable, and responsible use of space.