It is not just the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia that makes the trilateral AUKUS alliance a meaningful deterrent, but also the supply chain that grows from their collaboration and trade, which is why the trio must show that there are no barriers between them.
Since its inception in September 2021, the AUKUS pact has been hindered by export controls, foremost among them is the international traffic in arms regulations (ITAR) levied in the United States, which some observers considered an act of national self-harm.
While exemptions have been introduced, so long as activities occur between or among AUKUS nations, since 2 September 2024, the application process for companies still takes time.
There are only a limited number of companies from Australia, the UK, and the US that are exempt from ITAR through what is known as the AUKUS Authorised User Community (AUC).
Figures and procedures
This week, in a series of UK parliamentary written responses, the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, Maria Eagle, laid out figures for the national suppliers made exempt by the AUC.
The UK has 98 entities that have been approved, with 171 entities currently going through the approval process out of a total of 269 suppliers.
Australia currently has 344 members of its Authorised User Community. The reason that their membership numbers are higher than the UK is because Australia is migrating their members from the Australia Approved Community which is already confirmed by the Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty (DTCT) 2012.
The Australian DTCT was more widely used by Australia than the UK and therefore Australia had more AC members to migrate than the UK.
The UK Ministry of Defence has only recently fully established the new AUC joining process. Application timelines were not monitored while the process was being established. Data will be gathered over the next few months to provide indicative processing timelines.
Once the UK process has been completed, the US must then complete its own checks on the applicants prior to those entities being approved for membership of the AUC.
Meanwhile, US companies are deemed to be members of the US AUC if they have registered with the Directorate of Defence Trade Controls (DDTC), the body responsible for overseeing ITAR.
No public precise figures are available for how many American suppliers have joined the AUKUS AUC. But as a guide, Eagle said, any US company which has exported military end use items out of the US will be registered with DDTC. The numbers could therefore be in the thousands.
Tariff impact
While the US has made an effort to cultivate a global AUKUS-driven supply chain through the AUC, President Donald Trump’s tariffs may undermine this cooperation and by extension any meaningful sense of deterrence as the administration curbs their own partners.
While the UK has recently softened the blow with a bilateral deal this month – in which British steel, aluminium, and Rolls-Royce engines may pass the US border tariff-free – the country is still held to a baseline 10% tariff in other areas.
Australia, meanwhile, faces a stricter circumstance in which the country is held to a baseline 10% tariff and another universal 25% baseline tariff on steel and aluminium.
“Although a trade war may not directly affect military capabilities, particularly in the near term, the fact that the United States and its allies are having bitter economic confrontations helps both Russia and China,” asserted Mark Cancian, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, speaking in March.
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