On December 2, 2023, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, and U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps met at the Defense Innovation Unit headquarters in California. A joint statement issued after the meeting announced that AUKUS partners were accelerating the development of quantum technologies for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) in military capabilities.
According to the statement, these quantum PNT capabilities would create resilience for trilateral forces in Global Positioning System-degraded environments and enhance stealth in the undersea domain, which would also support the SSN-AUKUS submarine program. The ministers also announced plans to launch an innovation challenge series with an initial focus on electronic warfare, the establishment of an AUKUS Industry Forum, and the creation of an AUKUS Defense Investors Network.
Additional Pillar II updates included the Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies (RAAIT) program, a deep space advanced radar capability, and long-range fires cooperation. The December 2023 meeting represented the most detailed public commitment to quantum defense applications since AQuA’s establishment in April 2022.