Australia’s first spy mission over the Pacific under the AUKUS pact takes place

Australia has flown its first spy mission over the Pacific under the AUKUS pact with its US and UK allies as Russia has demanded more details.

Australia has flown its first spy mission over the Pacific under the AUKUS pact with its US and UK allies as Russia formally demands the full extent of the alliance be revealed.

An RAAF crew joined British and American counterparts in a RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft on an unspecified test mission “over the Pacific region” from the US Air Forces’ PACAF base in Hawaii.

The US Air Force said the mission was “demonstrating our strong alliance and increasing our ability to maintain a free and open Indo Pacific.”

The AUKUS trilateral security pact announced in September last year was ostensibly created to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines but will also see co-operation on undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter hypersonic hardware and advanced cyber and quantum tech warfare.

A RC-135 was used in the first spy flight as part of AUKUS.

The RC-135 is a multidiscipline aircraft used in strategic and tactical missions that can effectively hoover up electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems. The mission was part of a raft of joint activities designed to test interoperability.

As reported last weekend, the US, UK and Australia have taken interoperability between its armed forces to new levels through military exercises, most recently RIMPAC, the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise.

AUKUS partners have said China’s coercive and expansionist ambitions in the region was destabilising.

Flight details came as Russia formally demanded to the United Nations that the three AUKUS nations reveal the extent of the security pact with “exhaustive and comprehensive” information particularly around the submarine program.

Members of the crew who took part in the first AUKUS spy mission flight.

“The North Atlantic Alliance’s designated course makes us be more cautious in regard to the creation of the AUKUS partnership by the US, the UK and Australia,” Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Office and Other International Organizations Andrey Belousov has told Russian news outlets.

“Despite claims that Australia will not be handed over nuclear warheads it is in fact expected to host the military infrastructure of nuclear-armed states. Moreover, Australia’s planned purchases of nuclear submarines, which are actually weapons of unlimited range, compel other countries to take into consideration such a massive build-up of its military capabilities.”

The Russian diplomat said the true “goals” of the alliance needed to be clarified, its objectives he branded “are clearly broader than those that lie on the surface”.

The query has followed Russian protests over Australia black-listing more than 840 individuals including President Vladimir Putin over his ordered invasion of Ukraine and block on exports to the Russian regime and its puppet state Belarus.

Originally published as Australia’s first spy mission over the Pacific under the AUKUS pact takes place