Assistant Minister for Defence Stuart Robert has returned from a visit to the United States where he met with key US interlocutors to further defence and security cooperation.
During his visit, Minister Robert called on the US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Mr Bob Work to discuss current bilateral engagement and opportunities to deepen collaboration in areas such as defence innovation and cooperation on science and technology.
Deputy Secretary Work and Minister Robert also discussed avenues for Australian collaboration in the US Department of Defense’s Innovation Initiative, a long-term US effort to leverage new technologies and systems to ensure it can best respond to emerging security challenges.
Minister Robert said discussions were also held on the ongoing reform efforts in their respective defence organisations, with Minister Robert detailing progress on Australia’s upcoming Defence White Paper and recently released First Principles Review.
They also discussed Australia’s current operational cooperation in the Middle East, and how the US and Australia can provide further support to service personnel returning from operational deployments.
During the visit, Minister Robert also met with Mr Al Shaffer, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Research and Engineering to further deepen cooperation on respective science and technology programs.
Mr Robert met with officials from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to discuss emerging defence technologies and visited the US Special Operations Command to examine research and development, acquisition and personnel issues associated with Special Forces.
As part of his visit Minister Robert also visited Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard and had the opportunity to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C.