Will AUKUS’ Pillar II Keep America’s Allies Fighting Above Their Weight?

As Washington and Tokyo aim to reach an agreement this spring to have Japan participate in AUKUS’ unmanned, non-nuclear Pillar II projects, the question arises: How useful might these programs be militarily? Do unmanned underwater and airborne vehicles afford a standalone military capability that is significant, or should they instead be seen as a complement to manned systems? To what extent might these systems perpetuate the weaknesses of crewed systems? What’s the fix? How might Washington, Australia, and Japan tailor these programs to maximize their lethality and to get them deployed quickly?

This workshop aimed to answer these questions with three brief presentations by Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute, Marcus Hellyer of C2 Robotics, and Brigadier Ian Langford, former Head of Land Capability as well as former Director-General of Future Land Warfare in the Australian Army.