Australia hosts tripartite AUKUS uncrewed undersea exercise

HMS Spey, sister ship to HMS Tamar. Image: Defence

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have conducted a combined exercise off the east coast of Australia testing autonomous undersea warfare capabilities.

In the Integrated Battle Problem 23-3 exercise a range of modified commercial and military autonomous systems were deployed, in conjunction with existing capabilities, in order to test trilateral undersea warfare objectives.

“Submarines are critical to the defence of Australia. Our submarines, and other military assets, will increasingly work with autonomous systems below and on the surface of the ocean to extend range and lethality,” said the Chief of the RAN, VADM Mark Hammond.

“AUKUS Pillar Two is about delivering advanced capabilities, including through technologies that extend reach and range.

“What we get by working with industry in this way is speed, what we get by doing it together under the AUKUS partnership is scale, where the sum of the whole is greater than its parts.”

During the exercise, Australia’s new undersea support vessel, Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Guidance, hosted a range of undersea capabilities for testing at sea. The UK’s offshore patrol vessel, HMS Tamar, which is on a five-year deployment to the Indo-Pacific, also played a key role. HMS Tamar used a combination of divers and autonomous underwater vehicles to conduct mine-countermeasure operations and monitor critical infrastructure, including pipelines and communication cables.

It’s not known to what extent this exercise has shaped Defence’s views on Project SEA 1905 which aims to acquire an autonomous MCM capability for the RAN. A source selection for this project is expected very soon.

“These exercises accelerate our combined development of advanced military capabilities,” said the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Samual Paparo. “In a dynamic strategic environment and the escalation of competitors’ coercive activities, AUKUS is not just about the exchange of submarines and capabilities, it is an expansion of our continued trust in and commitment to our allies.

“We are prioritising capabilities that improve our warfighters’ ability to see, understand, decide and act – then work together to bolster integrated deterrence.

The successful trial demonstrated significant progress in the development of undersea warfare capabilities under AUKUS. It highlighted how, through collaboration by their collective industrial bases, AUKUS partners can operate uncrewed and remote capabilities to effectively support decisions and engage targets in the maritime domain.

“The recent AUKUS trials and exercise demonstrate the advances being made possible by our trilateral collaboration under the partnership,” according to the UK’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key. “It is hugely exciting to see the strength of our three nations, coming together through the AUKUS partnership to successfully develop and demonstrate a range of underwater capabilities that are crucial to ensuring safety and security in the region and more broadly.”