The AUKUS (Autonomy Working Group) partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States has achieved a significant milestone with the successful trial of AI-enabled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed to locate, disable, and destroy ground targets. This groundbreaking exercise, which took place as part of the annual US-hosted multinational Project Convergence experimentation exercise, marks the first real-time military application of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) within the AUKUS framework.
The trial, led by experts from the British Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) alongside AUKUS partners, showcased a seamless integration of AI and autonomous systems, demonstrating the potential for enhanced operational capabilities. The exercise featured multiple drones from each AUKUS nation operating cohesively within the same airspace, coordinated by an AUKUS AI team that continuously retrained and deployed AI models onto the platforms in real-time.
Commodore Rachel Singleton, Head of the British Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre (DAIC) and the UK’s lead for the AUKUS AI and Autonomy Working Group, emphasized the importance of this collaboration: “Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies provide the opportunity to develop, test, and trial AI models on autonomous systems. The AUKUS partnership is key to ensuring that the systems designed by each nation are interoperable into the future.”
The successful trial is part of the broader AUKUS Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies (RAAIT) series, highlighting the rapid development of AI and autonomy technologies within the partnership. Since the first UK trial in April 2023, significant advancements have been made, positioning AUKUS to incorporate these technologies onto national platforms, thereby offering a critical operational advantage in response to evolving global threats.