AUKUS partners conduct AI-enabled UAV trials

AUKUS partners held an AI-enabled UAV trial during Project Convergence in the US in 2024. Once proven, the technology will be incorporated into the militaries' platforms. (Crown Copyright)

Australia, the UK, and the US successfully deployed artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as part of the AUKUS Pillar 2 initiative in a bid to accelerate the identification and disabling of ground targets.

The trial, held during the US Army-led multinational Project Convergence Capstone 4 (PC-C4) experimentation exercise in February and March, involved several unmanned systems from each country operating together in the same airspace, augmented by an AUKUS AI team that retrained and integrated AI on the platforms, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) announced on 9 August.

Various AUKUS partners and experts including from Dstl and Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group were involved in the demonstration, which has been heralded by Dstl as “the first use of autonomy and AI-sensing systems in a real-time military environment”.

The demonstration, which forms part of the AUKUS Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies (RAAIT) series of trials, highlighted the “significant improvements AUKUS partners have made to the application and viability of RAAIT since the first UK trial in April 2023”, Dstl said.

Once proven, the technology will be incorporated onto national platforms, Dstl added.

“RAAIT-based technologies enable us [AUKUS partners] to collect information at pace and scale through the use of autonomy-borne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR),” said Robert Hunjet, Australia's programme lead of the AUKUS Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy (AIA) Working Group for PC-C4.

The US Department of Defense's (DoD's) Principal Director for Trusted AI and Autonomy, Kimberly Sablon, said AUKUS' collaboration on AI would be critical in developing future joint force capabilities.