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AUKUS Drone Project Announced
The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia announced a new AUKUS project to develop underwater drone technology to protect undersea cables, with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the “signature project will deliver a suite of highly adaptable multi-mission UUV payloads designed to support undersea operations and maintain our collective advantage in the maritime domain.”
“In short: Australia, the United States and Britain have revealed the three countries will develop underwater drones as part of their trilateral AUKUS defence pact”
The announcement came as Defence minister Richard Marles warned at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that “the seabed is becoming a battlefield. The shadow fleet is becoming a weapon,” and he said undersea internet cables are being cut at an unprecedented rate.
Marles said he had cited five cases of cables being cut in the Taiwan Strait in the past 18 months, attributed to China, and three in the Baltic Sea, alleged to have been committed by Russia.
The three countries said the underwater drones are expected to be ready by 2027, and the first deliveries of the unspecified payloads will begin in 2027, according to a joint statement issued by Hegseth, UK Defence Secretary John Healy and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles.
Marles also said about 99% of Australia’s internet traffic flows through just 15 subsea cables, describing financial systems, health systems, communications and intelligence partnerships as critically dependent on infrastructure that “cannot move and … can be cut with an anchor in the middle of the night.”
Funding, Timelines, and Criticism
UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the planned technology, a “range of cutting edge sensors and weapons systems” for underseas drones, “will rapidly give our forces the very most advanced battlefield technologies,” and he added the systems will be deployed on uncrewed underwater vessels.
Healey also acknowledged criticism of AUKUS’s pace, telling reporters, “For too long in Aukus, we talked too much and delivered too little,” and adding, “that has now changed under our three governments”.
The UK MoD fact sheet described the project as increasing AUKUS interoperability through shared standards, trilateral operational concepts and common control systems, while the first deliveries of the unspecified payloads will begin in 2027.
The UK committed £150 million, or about $201 million, into the effort, and the project was described as the first project officially announced under Pillar 2 of AUKUS.
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles called the partnership a “momentous occasion,” and he said the initiative would be “hugely significant” as all three countries move to deliver the new technology from 2027.
Strategic Stakes for Subsea Infrastructure
Marles framed the threat as extending beyond cable cutting, saying “These same networks of unregistered, flag-of-convenience vessels are vectors for sanctions evasion, for the transport of energy that sustains Russia’s war in Europe, for illegal fishing, for human and drug trafficking.”
“The United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced a joint effort to develop advanced underwater drone technology designed to safeguard critical seabed infrastructure and strengthen military capabilities across multiple regions”
In the same Singapore setting, Marles said China had “a real opportunity” to contribute to a more stable Asia-Pacific region by offering “transparency around its maritime operations,” and he said existing patterns of grey zone activity are not consistent with a peaceful and stable regional order.
The Guardian reported that European fashion retailers are facing fresh questions over supply chain oversight after a fire at a factory that supplied them killed at least 33 garment workers in Bangladesh, but in the AUKUS context the focus remained on undersea cables and pipelines as critical infrastructure.
Benzinga described the initiative as the first major project under AUKUS Pillar Two, expecting the new system to reach operational readiness by next year, and it said officials linked the drones to surveillance, reconnaissance, logistics missions and precision strike operations.
Sky News said the UUVs would strengthen all three countries’ ability to respond to threats, including adversaries targeting underwater cables and pipelines, while China has called the AUKUS pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.
