AUKUS partners wrap up tests of autonomous and networked systems 

The United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the members of the AUKUS pact, have completed tests of several autonomous and networked systems during a three-week maritime experimentation called Autonomous Warrior 24 in Australia. 

As disclosed, the event was part of the Maritime Big Play (MBP) initiative and ongoing efforts to develop AUKUS Pillar II capabilities, a trilateral collaboration to improve maritime awareness through networked autonomy, decision advantage, and enhanced strike.

The Maritime Big Play is a series of integrated trilateral experiments and exercises that are enhancing capability development, improving interoperability, and increasing the function and scale of autonomous systems in the maritime domain.

Australia led the Autonomous Warrior event, while other events associated with Maritime Big Play included the Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping augmented by Maritime Unmanned Systems (REPMUS); and Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX).

Through these experiments and exercises, AUKUS countries are further testing and refining the ability to jointly operate uncrewed maritime systems, share and process maritime data from all three nations, and provide real-time maritime domain awareness to support decision-making.

“Autonomous Warrior/Maritime Big Play creates a unique opportunity for our three countries to work together, which will ultimately improve operational efficiency and allow us to work more cohesively against common threats,” said Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

“This collaborative approach enables us to reduce acquisition, maintenance, and training cost by creating economies of scale.”

The technologies tested during the October event supported various operations, including software-defined acoustic modems, multi-model autonomous underwater and surface vessels, and low-cost attritable unmanned surface vehicles.

The tests also featured a low-cost gondola, which supports operations in the upper stratosphere with minimum manpower or logistics requirements, and T-200 high-altitude balloons, which provide resilient communications in denied environments from the stratosphere.

Furthermore, software-defined network architecture called Multi-Domain Uncrewed Secure Integrated Communications (MUSIC) was tested for its ability to enable communication and coordination across diverse unmanned systems and operational environments. 

The Common Control System (CCS) was also featured in the exercise, built on an open architecture to provide uncrewed vehicles hardware and software that works across several different systems. 

According to AUKUS partners, this effort supports future work to create an AUKUS-wide Common Control System.

AUKUS parties recently signed an agreement to enable cooperation that is essential to Australia’s capacity to “safely build, operate and maintain” a conventionally‑armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.