Australia news live: Aukus nations to develop uncrewed vehicles to protect undersea cables; Hanson says she could be PM

The United States, Australia and Britain are developing high-tech payloads for uncrewed underseas vehicles under their trilateral security partnership, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced on Saturday. As Agence France-Presse reports, Hegseth met his Australian and British counterparts on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where they reviewed progress on the Aukus pact, aimed at bolstering their presence in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. “Today, we’re pleased to announce the first AUKUS Pillar 2 signature project, focused on fielding advanced uncrewed undersea vehicles, or UUVs,” Hegseth told reporters at a briefing at the US embassy in Singapore. double quotation mark “This signature project will deliver a suite of highly adaptable multi-mission UUV payloads designed to support undersea operations and maintain our collective advantage in the maritime domain.” Aukus’s Pillar 1 focuses on Australia’s acquisition of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, while Pillar 2 pools the talents of each nation’s defence sector to develop advanced military capabilities. The pact is framed as supporting a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, though it is widely viewed as a bulwark against a rising China, which strongly opposes it.