AUKUS partners test unmanned maritime systems, associated technologies

By Oishee Majumdar | 28 October 2024

The AUKUS partners tested Anduril Australia's Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle during Exercise ‘Autonomous Warrior' in October. (Commonwealth of Australia)

The militaries of Australia, the UK, and the US have experimented with different unmanned maritime systems in Jervis Bay in Australia's New South Wales as part of efforts to advance AUKUS Pillar 2 capabilities.

Since early October, hundreds of soldiers and industry participants from Australia, the UK, and the US have operated and demonstrated “30 asymmetric capabilities from across the three countries” in Jervis Bay, the Australian Department of Defence (DoD) announced on 25 October.

The DoD said these experimentations were conducted under Exercise ‘Autonomous Warrior', the first Australian-based exercise under the ‘Maritime Big Play' initiative, which is a series of integrated trilateral experiments and exercises aimed at improving interoperability between the AUKUS partners and enhancing autonomous and maritime capabilities under AUKUS Pillar 2.

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The systems experimented with at ‘Autonomous Warrior' will support persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and deliver strike capabilities to the AUKUS partners, the DoD said.

Australian systems that were tested in the exercise include Anduril Australia's Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (XL-AUV), Melbourne-based C2 Robotics' Speartooth large unmanned underwater vehicle (LUUV), Sydney-based Ocius Technology's Bluebottle unmanned surface vessel (USV), and Perth-based Innovaero's One-Way Loitering B (OWL B) precision munition, the DoD said.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has previously tested Ghost Shark and Speartooth multiple times. Anduril and the DoD unveiled the first prototype of Ghost Shark in April. The Australian government and Anduril have each contributed AUD70 million (USD46 million) towards the development of Ghost Shark. In August the DoD announced that it expects the first production variant of Ghost Shark to be developed by the end of 2025.