Britain to lead development of three underwater sensors for AUKUS — Breaking Defense
The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have completed the Maritime Big Play exercise off the coast of San Diego, during which they tested autonomous systems for maritime operations, including tracking underwater threats and exchanging data between platforms. As Breaking Defense reports, the Royal Navy described the maneuvers as the largest joint demonstration of uncrewed and autonomous technologies by the three countries under the second pillar of the AUKUS partnership.
More than 40 technologies in the exercise
The United Kingdom led the anti-submarine warfare component of Maritime Big Play. For surveillance and reconnaissance tasks, it deployed uncrewed surface vessels, underwater gliders, drones and underwater vehicles. The exercise tested interaction between crewed and uncrewed assets.
In total, the partners demonstrated more than 40 technologies from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, including crewed, uncrewed and multi-domain autonomous systems. The U.S. Navy said the goal of the maneuvers was to achieve milestones in integrating mature robotic and autonomous systems into AUKUS coalition maritime operations.
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New underwater modules
After the exercise concluded, the UK Ministry of Defence announced that the country would lead the development of three advanced underwater sensor modules for uncrewed systems. They are planned to be made available to the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States in 2027.
These include synthetic aperture sonar, a deployable anti-submarine warfare sensor and a deployable non-kinetic effector. According to the British defence ministry, these systems are intended to conduct surveillance, collect data underwater and deploy sensors to detect, track and identify underwater threats.
AUKUS was created in 2021. The first pillar of the partnership provides for supplying Australia with Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines by 2032, while the second focuses on the joint development and deployment of advanced military capabilities.
