Defence Readiness and Industry Minister Luke Pollard has announced that Britain will lead the next stage of development of three advanced undersea sensor payloads for uncrewed underwater vehicles under the AUKUS security partnership.
The systems are a Synthetic Aperture Sonar, a Deployable Anti-Submarine Warfare Sensor and a Deployable Non-Kinetic Effector. They are designed to gather detailed underwater information, detect and classify threats and help protect undersea infrastructure across large areas of ocean.
The Ministry of Defence says the payloads will be available across the Australian, British and American uncrewed underwater fleets from 2027.
Tested in San Diego
The announcement followed a week of testing at the Maritime Big Play exercise in San Diego. Britain led the anti-submarine warfare strand, contributing 13 uncrewed surface vehicles, two targets and four underwater gliders from six industry partners.
Twelve UK industry partners took part. Four suppliers - SEA Ltd in Frome, Decision Analysis Services in Basingstoke, A2i in Dorchester and the US firm MSI Transducers - won the AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge and a share of £3 million to develop technology for the command and control of undersea systems.
Luke Pollard: 'The UK is all in on AUKUS'
"The UK is all in on AUKUS, and this cutting-edge technology shows why," Pollard said. "By leading development of these sensor payloads, we're putting British innovation at the heart of AUKUS and strengthening our collective undersea capability."
"In places like Frome, Basingstoke and Dorchester, British companies large and small are driving this work forward, creating skilled jobs and backing our plan to deliver a modern, Hybrid Navy fit for the threats we face."
