AUKUS allies have tested AI-powered drones to reduce the time it takes to identify enemy targets (US Department of Defense)
BELFAST — Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, the three AUKUS partners, have successfully tested artificial intelligence (AI)-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other autonomous capabilities to reduce the time to identify enemy targets.
The trial, which falls within the wider AUKUS Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies (RAAIT) work area, was hailed today as “the first use of autonomy and AI sensor systems in a real-time military environment” by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), the UK’s military technology experimental arm.
Although the announcement was made today, DSTL said the test was part of the multinational technology experimentation exercise “Project Convergence Capstone 4” held in the US in the spring. The test involved “multiple drones” from each of the three AUKUS countries “operating together in the same airspace to achieve a common outcome, while supported by an AUKUS AI team that retrained and deployed AI on the platforms,” DSTL said.
The use of AI-enabled drones will enable human operators to “locate, disable and destroy targets on the ground,” it said.
DSTL said the “smooth exchange of data and control” between partner countries’ technologies demonstrated the progress they had made together in deploying artificial intelligence and autonomous systems.
The development of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, including hypersonic missiles and quantum computers, falls under Pillar II of AUKUS and is separate from the main focus of the trilateral security pact, or Pillar I, which is based on a new class of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.
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DSTL also noted that AI and autonomous capabilities, “once proven,” “will be integrated into national platforms and provide the military with operational advantages through faster response to current and future threats,” although no specific timeframe was given.
The latest AI test builds on similar demonstrations, notably AI swarm tests conducted last year in Wiltshire, southwest England. During that test, a collection of AUKUS’s “AI-enabled assets” successfully operated together as a swarm to detect and track targets for the first time.
