New AUKUS experiment shows how allies with autonomy will speed up naval operations

U.S., Australian, British, and Japanese defense officials converged on Australia’s Jervis Bay this week for a weeklong experiment to test how to integrate new, developmental tech from different countries in order to speed up intelligence and reconnaissance data transmission at sea. The results: “Things that would have taken perhaps months were taking place minutes in terms of common operating pictures,” one senior defense official told reporters.

The so-called Maritime Big Play exercise is part of the broader AUKUS partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The first pillar of AUKUS focuses on the co-development of a nuclear-powered submarine, while the second pillar involves co-development and deployment of emerging technologies like autonomous drones. 

Madeline Mortelmans, the current acting assistant defense secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities, told reporters Wednesday that progress on AUKUS pillar II is already changing the way the allies think about joint operations and fielding new technologies.

 “We’re advancing our undersea warfare capabilities by expanding our ability to launch to and recover uncrewed underwater systems from the torpedo tubes on current classes of British and U.S. submarines,” she said. “That will increase the range and capability of our undersea forces. We’re integrating the [BAE] Sting Ray lightweight torpedo into the P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, which will support our forces in being more interchangeable while providing resilience to munitions stockpiles across AUKUS nations.”

The experimentation in Jervis Bay served as a showcase for a lot of new drone tech and other systems, both in the water and above, from across the alliance. “Much of the gear that was brought to the party was from the partners,” one official said. Some of the systems the United States brought include the GARC unmanned surface boat, the Vanilla long-endurance UAV, and the Ocean Aero underwater and surface vessel (Triton.) 

 “This was all industry. We had 30 different systems, from the sea bed to the stratosphere, involved here,” an official said. 

The experiments tested how well the systems and the militaries could collect and disseminate intelligence and data. 

“The testing and experimentation was driven by specific scenarios. So think of the need to use a mix of uncrewed and crewed assets to do very large area [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] for example, and to maintain a common operating picture,” an official said.

Another focus of the experiment was to identify how allies could modify or develop specific tactics, techniques and procedures to allow for faster data and intelligence sharing across the alliance—and to do so from the wide array of drones and other assets. 

“We demonstrated not only the systems… but also how we would employ those systems. So the specific TTPs that will help us do that more effectively, that will accelerate our adoption, and then further it helps us understand how we would do it together, through connecting and communicating and command and controlling the devices,” another official said.

Japanese officials attended the briefings this week, as the AUKUS nations are considering closer collaboration with Japan in these areas. 

One former senior defense official told Defense One, “Integrating increasingly autonomous capabilities is critical to the future success of all three navies.” The experiment “provides a unique platform for experimentation to ensure each country benefits from the advances of the other, helping the AUKUS partners scale better than future capabilities faster,” he said.