{"id":2285,"date":"2025-07-18T05:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T05:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/2285\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T05:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T05:16:09","slug":"ai-firms-aukus-approval-proves-increasing-military-ties-to-us-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/2285\/","title":{"rendered":"AI firm’s AUKUS approval proves increasing military ties to US, UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Australian AI company has become the latest to be granted the right to licence-free trades with the US and UK under the AUKUS deal, highlighting the steady pace at which the submarine pact\u2019s second pillar is advancing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maritime AI and autonomy company Greenroom Robotics announced in a media release on Thursday it had been granted AUKUS authorised user status by the Australian government, enabling it to \u201cfast-track delivery of advanced technologies\u201d to the other two AUKUS countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur licence-free approval means US and UK customers can deploy Greenroom\u2019s proven maritime autonomy stack with the speed, flexibility, and assurance needed to meet today\u2019s strategic challenges,\u201d chief operations officer Harry Hubbert said<\/a> in the statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\tArticle ID: 1214507\n\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"Australia\u2019s\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

He also said Greenroom Robotics, which specialises in technology meant to turn ships into autonomous and AI-enabled vessels, was \u201cone of the very first Australian companies\u201d to be granted the status, though that appears to be a stretch.<\/p>\n

Public information from Australia and the UK indicates Australia has been efficient in approving new companies under the AUKUS legislation, and the process appears to be picking up speed. In February, Defence Minister Richard Marles said<\/a> over 210 companies across Australia had been welcomed into the \u201cexport licence-free environment\u201d since it was established<\/a> by the three AUKUS nations in September 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By May, that figure appeared to have risen to 344. That\u2019s according to UK Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle, who told<\/a> the UK Parliament that it was three times as many as her country has, in what\u2019s known as the AUKUS authorised user community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tKnow something more about this story?<\/p>\n

Contact Anton Nilsson securely via Signal<\/a>\u00a0using the username @anilsson.33. Or use our\u00a0Tip Off form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason that their membership numbers are higher than the UK is a result of Australia migrating their members from the Australia Approved Community [AC], which is under the Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty [DTCT] 2012,\u201d Eagle said on May 14. \u201cThe Australian DTCT was more widely used by Australia than the UK and therefore Australia had more AC members to migrate than the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

A directory of members of the DTCT community, updated by the Department of Defence on July 10, listed<\/a> 107 companies and Australian government agencies.<\/p>\n

The ability to export military technologies licence-free is one of the major components of the AUKUS pact\u2019s second pillar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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While AUKUS pillar one relates to the transfer of nuclear-driven submarines to Australia, pillar two enables information and technology sharing between the US, Australia and the UK, including by tearing down trade barriers.<\/p>\n

Pillar two is primarily aimed at advancing eight research areas: undersea capabilities, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, advanced cyber capabilities, hypersonic capabilities, electronic warfare, innovation and information sharing.<\/p>\n

In the UK, 269 entities had applied to join the AUKUS authorised user community as of May 14, and 98 of those had already been approved, according to Eagle\u2019s evidence to the UK Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eagle said the UK did not have access to information on how many US companies were members of the US authorised user community, but estimated the numbers could be \u201cin the thousands\u201d.<\/p>\n

\tAre you concerned at the speed at which DoD is giving companies AUKUS approval?<\/p>\n

We want to hear from you. Write to us at\u00a0letters@crikey.com.au<\/a>\u00a0to be published in\u00a0Crikey. Please include your full name. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian AI company has become the latest to be granted the right to licence-free trades with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,3402,63,3403,3404,3405,3406,105,576],"class_list":{"0":"post-2285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-aukus","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-defence","15":"tag-greenroom-robotics","16":"tag-military-tech","17":"tag-richard-marles","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-trade"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}