The US, UK and Australia are conducting a maritime technology demonstration off Southern California, testing autonomous and crewed systems as part of the AUKUS partnership’s second pillar.
Maritime Big Play Pacific runs from 5 to 26 October and includes more than 40 technologies supplied by government and industry participants from the three countries.
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The event covers systems operating across multiple domains, including crewed and uncrewed maritime capabilities.
The demonstration is part of a series of experiments and exercises intended to improve the partners’ ability to operate uncrewed maritime systems together, exchange and process maritime data, and provide real-time maritime-domain awareness for decision-making.
Michael Dodd, assistant secretary of the Department of War (DoW) for critical technologies, said the programme was assessing scenarios involving autonomous systems from “seafloor to space”.
“[Maritime Big Play Pacific demonstrates] the emphasis and the criticality that the trilateral nations have placed into ensuring that AUKUS pillar two and Maritime Big Play Pacific are successful, and that we’re identifying the right project sprints … to deter major conflicts by creating a disparity of technological capability,” Dodd said.
AUKUS, announced in 2021, has two main lines of effort. Pillar one covers Australia’s acquisition of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, including plans to buy three US-built boats in the 2030s and to develop the SSN-AUKUS submarine with the UK and US.
Maritime Big Play Pacific falls under pillar two, which focuses on co-developing, co-producing and sustaining advanced capabilities, integrating multinational systems, and assessing technologies for possible deployment in the Pacific region.
Dodd said the Maritime Big Play series was the first project under a model that brings operational personnel, technical specialists and industry into the development process at an earlier stage.
The events also preceded the first AUKUS pillar two signature project, announced in May, on payloads and supporting systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.
According to the DoW, that project is intended to support missions including protection of critical seabed infrastructure, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike, logistics, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and operations in contested littoral areas.
