The Iran war has depleted US munitions stockpiles, strained its production capacity, and underscored the challenges posed by low-cost drones to the US way of war – developments which reverberate in the Indo-Pacific. To consider these impacts and workshop solutions for bolstering collective integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) in the Indo-Pacific, the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney convened experts from Australia, Japan and the United States and has published their recommendations in a new report.

In Advancing trilateral integrated air and missile defence between Australia, Japan and the United States, authors USSC Research Fellow Tom Corben; Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology Bryan Clark; Sasakawa Peace Foundation Senior Fellow Admiral (Ret.) Tomohisa Takei; and USSC Senior Adviser for Defence Strategy Professor Peter Dean share perspectives from Australia, Japan and the United States on the state of play for national and trilateral IAMD, as well as pathways toward more effective cooperation.

“The Iran war showed the centrality of air and missile defence to modern warfare, but it also exposed real vulnerabilities that have a direct impact on the Indo-Pacific,” USSC Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Dr Lavina Lee noted, “In this report, experts from AJUS offer insights on the implications and solutions for the trilateral security.”

The USSC is convening multiple workshops to explore challenges and test trilateral security solutions for the region. Over a series of five reports, USSC is sharing key themes and recommendations from these discussions, with a representative of each country writing a chapter for each of the five reports. In this report, the fourth in the series, experts recommend deeper trilateral operational planning, closer coordination of missile and interceptor supply chains as well as greater integration of industrial requirements into crisis simulations and wargaming.

“US allies and adversaries alike are learning lessons about drones and US IAMD capabilities after the wars in Ukraine and Iran. Australia, Japan and the United States have a strategic advantage if they set the groundwork now for trilateral cooperation on IAMD from production pipelines to crisis response,” Dr Lee concluded.

Advancing trilateral integrated air and missile defence between Australia, Japan and the United States is the fourth report in the Australia-Japan-United States series.

View the previous three reports in the series here:

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Key recommendations for the three countries

  1. Australia, Japan and the United States should think about requirements based on clear technical, operational and strategic lessons learned from the ongoing Ukraine-Russia and Iran-US conflicts.
  2. The three countries will need to more closely engage on divisions of roles and missions between their forces, including identifying priority investments in their respective national force structures to support those requirements.
  3. The three countries should more closely coordinate their respective munitions supply chain initiatives, with a focus on missile defence capabilities.
  4. The three nations should consider a trilateral cooperative program for new missile interceptor, including drones, to build trilateral equities into IAMD industrial cooperation from the outset.
  5. The AJUS nations should consider integrating interceptor and missile production factors into trilateral wargaming and crisis simulations to test both present degrees of defence industrial base integration and to identify potential pathways for rapid progress on that agenda when circumstances demand and incentives align.