News Analysis AUKUS, the defense partnership of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, is expanding from its original focus on nuclear submarine technology to cooperation on hypersonic and electronic warfare capabilities. The trilateral cooperation will also improve counter-hypersonics, information sharing, and defense innovation. According to British officials cited in The Times of London, “hiding key targets” and “laser weapons that could disrupt a missile’s flight path” could be developed as anti-hypersonic weapons. AUKUS released a statement and fact sheet on April 5, stressing that AUKUS defense cooperation is compliant with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) leadership on non-proliferation and will strengthen the world’s nuclear and other weapons non-proliferation agreements. The “nuclear” in AUKUS is for submarine propulsion, not weapons. According to the latest AUKUS information, defense cooperation will now include the following: undersea drones planned for 2023; quantum technologies for “positioning, navigation, and timing”; artificial intelligence (AI) and …