Pentagon forges new high-tech agreement with Australia, United Kingdom, aimed at countering China

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (AP) — The U.S. is expanding its high-tech military cooperation with Australia and the United Kingdom to include underwater drones and electronic warfare. It’s part of a broader effort to counter China’s rapidly growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Friday with defense chiefs from Australia and the United Kingdom at the U.S. military’s defense technology hub in Silicon Valley to forge a new agreement to increase technology cooperation and information sharing. Austin says the effort will, for example, rapidly accelerate the sophistication of the drone systems, and prove that “we are stronger together.”