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America Can’t Produce the Weapons It Needs for the Future. This Could Help.

Australia|America Can’t Produce the Weapons It Needs for the Future. This Could Help.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/15/world/australia/us-australia-uk-weapons-exports.html

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The United States, Australia and Britain are making it easier to share defense technology, hoping to spur the innovations needed to keep up with China.

A group of military members looks on as three men in suits approach a series of microphones on a blue stage. To the right hang the flags of Australia, Britain and the United States.

By Damien Cave

Damien Cave writes frequently about America’s military alliances.

Aug. 15, 2024Updated 2:41 p.m. ET

Australia, the United States and Britain have agreed to exempt each other from a vast array of export controls for defense technology, making it easier to trade and collaborate on weapons development and production.

The trilateral arrangement, announced Thursday, is an outgrowth of AUKUS — the 2021 compact that brought the three countries together to codevelop nuclear propelled submarines and other advanced technologies. It will harmonize the ground rules for companies in all three nations, removing many obstacles to sharing while holding onto controls for the most sensitive technologies and, in some cases, toughening punishment for violations.

Australian and American officials called it an important step toward modernizing an outdated approach to technology at a time when China has been making rapid advances and the United States struggles to produce the weapons demanded by a contentious world.

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The Benalla munitions factory in Australia. The country is already producing artillery shells to help replenish depleted U.S. stockpiles.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times

Australian officials said that the new legal framework will allow license-free trade for more than 70 percent of the exports from the United States to Australia that currently fall under what is known as ITAR, for International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and 80 percent of the trade subject to U.S. Export Administration Regulations, which cover less sensitive products.

While some details are still in flux, equipment removed from the licensing requirements would likely include traditional munitions, like the artillery shells Australia is already producing to help replenish stockpiles that have been depleted by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Some technologies that have both military and civilian uses, such as sensors and propulsion systems, will also get exemptions across all three partner countries.

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