The Government recognises the alignment between Pillar II and the Defence Industrial Strategy’s focus on innovation, resilience and growth. The Strategy is designed to develop the skills base, industrial resilience, investment conditions and innovation ecosystem needed to deliver advanced capabilities at pace, ensuring programmes and partnerships— including AUKUS—can generate both military advantage and economic growth for the UK. The Advanced Capabilities Industry Forum (ACIF) is the primary trilateral forum for AUKUS governments and industry to collaborate on, and accelerate, the development and delivery of advanced capabilities under Pillar II. Having met in April 2026, the ACIF will convene again at Farnborough International Air Show in July, helping to sustain delivery momentum and enable ongoing collaboration between government and industry partners. To date, Pillar II has focused on research, experimentation, and establishing the foundations for collaboration, such as information-sharing arrangements and export control reforms, which will facilitate the UK to operate at a greater pace to deliver further tangible benefits for industry, building on the benefits for industry already seen. For example, the AI and autonomy programme has awarded over £13 million in contracts, including to multiple UK SMEs, and recent experimentation activity has seen the majority of contracts placed with UK suppliers. In parallel, Pillar II has driven structural improvements that directly support defence industrial growth with the ITAR exemption agreed in 2024 (and UK and Australian reciprocal arrangements) representing the most significant change to our defence industrial relationship with the United States in decades, reducing barriers to trade and enabling faster, more efficient collaboration between UK, US, and Australian companies. The Government recognises that there is more we can do to translate this progress into clearer, scaled opportunities for UK industry. The signature project on cutting-edge payloads and enabling systems for AUKUS partners’ Uncrewed Undersea Vehicles is leading this change. The Government will continue to provide greater clarity and opportunity for industry.