Despite concerns over submarine-building capacity to meet AUKUS Pillar 1 needs, AUKUS countries are moving ahead with Pillar 2 efforts. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

While questions remain about the ability of Australia, the UK, and the US (AUKUS) to meet submarine requirement commitments for their AUKUS Pillar 1 agreement, the trio of defence partners detailed more specific Pillar 2 ambitions on 1 December.

Defence and government officials underscored plans aimed to better develop technology related to autonomous operations, electronic warfare (EW), space sensing and hypersonic weaponry for Pillar 2 at a joint press conference by AUKUS at the Defense Innovation Unit headquarters in California.

Officials also cited continued bipartisan and overall support in their countries to continue with the agreement, even with political uncertainty and growing concern that the US will lack the capacity to meet both AUKUS submarine-building and its own submarine operational needs in the coming years.

A Gurkha from 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles with an L85A3 5.56 mm assault rifle (right) next to a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force 1st Airborne Brigade paratrooper with a Howa Type 20 5.56 mm assault rifle (left) during Exercise ‘Vigilant Isles' in Somagahara Camp, Japan, on 15 November. (Crown copyright)

British Army soldiers embedded with the Japan Ground Self‐Defense Force (JGSDF) for the first time during Exercise ‘Vigilant Isles 23' in Japan from 15 to 26 November.

The Japanese embassy in London said on its website on 26 November that the exercise was the first time that the Japan-UK Reciprocal Access Agreement was applied. Around 400 JGSDF personnel and nearly 200 British Army soldiers were involved – the largest number of participants in a ‘Vigilant Isles' exercise. They conducted multiple training exercises such as infiltration and reconnaissance, combat shooting, and joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) to develop their tactical skills and deepen their mutual understanding, the embassy said.

A soldier from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (11th ACR) operates a Mounted Mission Command-Software (MMC-S)-based system during a training mission at Ft Irwin, California. (US Army)

The US Army is developing a new slate of advanced software designed to improve collection, dissemination, and exploitation of battlefield intelligence at the tactical level, according to a service solicitation.

The software development effort, known as the ‘Intel Apps' programme, is being spearheaded by Project Manager, Intelligence Systems & Analytics (IS&A) under the army's Program Executive Office – Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S) directorate. The programme, as designed, will “provide leap ahead [intelligence] tasking, collection, processing, exploitation and dissemination [of] advanced software capability” for army units, according to the 20 November request for proposals (RFP).

Intel Apps, once mature, “will displace and replace” the service's current intelligence systems and analytics software embedded in the army's Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE), programme officials said in the RFP.