San Diego, California, — The United Kingdom will lead the development of three new payloads for uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) under the AUKUS security partnership, with the systems planned to become available across Australian, British and American naval fleets from 2027.
Announced by the UK Ministry of Defence on October 27, the initiative advances AUKUS Pillar II, which focuses on advanced technologies, autonomous systems and shared capabilities among the three countries.
The development follows the conclusion of the Maritime Big Play exercise in San Diego, where Australian, British and U.S. forces tested crewed and uncrewed maritime systems together.
Three UK-Led Undersea Payloads
The UK-led programme focuses on three systems designed to expand the surveillance, detection and operational capabilities of allied underwater drones.
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Synthetic Aperture Sonar: Produces high-resolution imagery of the seabed and underwater objects for reconnaissance, threat identification and monitoring of critical underwater infrastructure.
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Deployable Anti-Submarine Warfare Sensors: Allow UUVs to position sensors away from the host vehicle, extending the monitoring area for detecting and tracking hostile submarines.
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Deployable Non-Kinetic Effectors: Designed to produce underwater effects without conventional explosive weapons. The UK Ministry of Defence has not disclosed their specific operating mechanisms.
The systems are intended to improve underwater surveillance, threat detection and protection of critical infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific, Euro-Atlantic and High North regions.
Maritime Big Play Exercise Tests Allied Systems
The announcement followed the Maritime Big Play exercise in San Diego, which covered four areas: anti-submarine warfare, lethality, contested resupply, and subsea and seabed warfare.
The UK led the anti-submarine warfare segment and contributed 13 uncrewed surface vehicles, two anti-submarine warfare targets and four underwater gliders from six industry partners.
The exercise supported efforts to integrate autonomous systems into allied naval operations and improve cooperation between crewed and uncrewed platforms.
Australia’s Ghost Shark Expands Payload Options
The UK announcement follows Australia's recent disclosure of new payload capabilities for Anduril's Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle (XLAUV).
Australia has outlined capabilities including carrying up to 12 naval mines, placing underwater logistics supply caches on the seabed, and launching Anduril's ALTIUS aerial drones from beneath the surface.
Other Australian platforms involved in the broader programme include C2 Robotics' Speartooth and Ocius's Bluebottle. Some Australian payloads also participated in the San Diego exercise.
Although the three UK-led payloads have not been specifically confirmed for Ghost Shark, the Australian platform's modular design is intended to accommodate different payloads as mission requirements evolve.
AUKUS Pillar II Focuses on Interchangeable Payloads
The developments highlight the AUKUS approach of integrating interchangeable mission payloads rather than requiring all three navies to operate identical underwater vehicles.
Under this approach, a UUV developed in Australia could carry a British-developed sensor or another allied payload without requiring a completely new vehicle design.
The partnership is also working on shared standards, common control systems and operational concepts to allow crewed and uncrewed platforms to function together.
The long-term objective is to distribute surveillance, sensing, logistics and other capabilities across a larger number of autonomous platforms. This would allow conventional submarines to operate alongside uncrewed systems, with autonomous vehicles taking on selected high-risk missions.
The first AUKUS Pillar II signature project for advanced undersea payloads and enabling systems was announced in May 2026, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027.
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