Page 131 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec-Jan 2023

“The United Kingdom and Australia have long enjoyed a close relationship based on our common values and interests, but we are ready to do more. AUKUS is a big, bold and ambitious statement about how we see our future. It reflects our shared commitment to a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and our desire for even closer technological and defence cooperation.”
Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin
HMS TAMAR and HMS SPEY Navy personnel, 2021
Air Vice Marshal Smith RAF and the RAAF’s Chief of the Air Force, Air Marshal Chipman at Ex. PITCH BLACK in Darwin, Australia, 2022
The UK-Australia
Defence Partnership
The UK has historically enjoyed a strong Defence relationship with Australia. Over the past few decades, both nations have worked closely together in challenging theatres across the world, most notably in Afghanistan and Iraq, which saw UK forces embedded within an ANZAC-led Task Force Taji on Operation OKRA.
The UK’s Defence relationship with Australia continues to evolve, with a current focus on collaboration across the Indo-Pacific, deepening security ties to promote regional stability and support to Ukraine in responding to Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion.
Since the Integrated Review and the Carrier Strike Group deployment in 2021, the UK has committed to closer Defence interoperability and capability development in the Indo-Pacific. In the last 12 months in Australia, Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon Fighter Jets have deployed on Exercise PITCH BLACK, the Royal Navy’s (RN) HMS SPEY was involved in Exercise KAKADU and numerous land-based exercises and exchanges were conducted by our forces.
Our two nations have also pooled expertise and resources to ensure Ukraine has the battle-ready troops and equipment they need to protect their sovereignty and push back Putin. This is evident through the amount of support provided to Ukraine by both nations. From January 2023, Australian Defence Force personnel will also deploy to the UK to train Ukrainian soldiers alongside the UK and other allies.
The UK-Australia relationship will continue to advance into 2023 and beyond as the UK seeks out and maximises opportunities to collaborate with its Australian counterparts, whether that’s through the biennial Exercise TALISMAN SABRE, our future Littoral Response Group across the Southwest Pacific or Carrier Strike Group deployments to increase and improve interoperability.
UK Defence Cooperation
in the Indo-Pacific
The announcement of the AUKUS partnership in 2021 ushered in a new era of enhanced security relations between Australia, the UK and the US. AUKUS reflects the level of trust and cooperation between the three nations and is particularly notable for its commitment to support the development of Australia’s first fleet of nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines, which will better enable the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to fulfil its defence and security responsibilities and promote stability and security in the Indo-Pacific.
The AUKUS partners are committed to setting the highest possible non-proliferation standards for the sharing of naval nuclear propulsion technology with a non-nuclear weapons state and are engaging regularly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A second strand of work involves cooperation on a range of advanced military capabilities.
The benefits of strengthening UK Defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific were set out in the UK’s 2021 Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. It identified growing threats to regional security that make UK cooperation with Australia and regional partners more important than ever if we are to mitigate threats, build resilience and capacity, tackle shared security challenges and uphold freedom of navigation and international law.
The first concrete demonstration of the UK’s enhanced commitment to the Indo-Pacific (known as the UK’s ‘Indo-Pacific Tilt’) was Operation FORTIS – the UK’s Multinational Carrier Strike Group 2021 deployment to the region known as CSG21. This operation saw the UK working with 19 regional partners and taking part in six major exercises alongside partner nations, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).