Mr Cahill argued that the UK should find “gaps” in capability that need to be plugged and that Lockheed was willing to bring development of a Mako-style hypersonic missile to the UK as part of those efforts.

This would include partnering with British companies on production and the supply chain. 

He added: “Resources are stretched in all our countries. If the UK can bring that investment and focus, that’ll be something Australia and the United States don’t have to do – they’ll put their focus somewhere else but everybody gets better.

“With Aukus, there’s an openness to moving technology and advancing so you become the best.

“Each country will make their own decisions. But it doesn’t have to just be ‘buy from the United States’ or ‘build up some capability from scratch’.

“The world has changed. Aukus is new and you see us talking openly about co-production around the world with the blessing and support of the United States government.

“So we can do these things, it doesn’t have to be the old model.”

Advancing the Aukus agreement

The Aukus agreement, which was signed by the governments of the UK, US and Australia, was originally drawn up to share sensitive technology for nuclear-powered submarines amid a growing threat from China in the Pacific.

However, “pillar 2” of the deal is also seen by defence experts as hugely important because it covers technology-sharing in cutting edge areas such as hypersonic weapons and quantum computing.

Hypersonic missiles, which operate at significantly faster speeds than standard cruise missiles, have the ability to evade an opponent’s air defences by travelling at more than 4,000 miles per hour and manoeuvring in mid-flight.