The three countries of the AUKUS security partnership – Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – have come together to trial “a futuristic integration of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time”, the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), which also took part in the trials, announced on 9 August 2024.
The trials, which were part of a series of trials named AUKUS Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies (RAAIT), during the annual US-hosted multi-national Project Convergence experimentation exercise, which took place in California in March 2024.
The trials demonstrated the significant improvements the AUKUS partners have made to the application and viability of RAAIT since the first AUKUS AI and autonomy trial was hosted by the UK in April 2023.
Dstl noted that the latest trials focused on “collaborative AI and autonomy with our allies, to ensure we achieve the best possible outcomes”, adding that the technology “has been developing at rapid pace and, once proven, will be incorporated onto national platforms, providing the military with operational advantage through a quicker response to current and future threats”.
During the trials AI and autonomous systems were used to reduce the time it takes to identify enemy targets and operate with reduced risk to life by exposing fewer manned platforms. The included several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from each nation operating together in the same airspace to achieve a common outcome, while being augmented by an AUKUS AI team, which retrained and deployed AI onto the platforms.
“Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies provides the opportunity to develop, test and trial AI models on autonomous systems,” Commodore Rachel Singleton, head of the UK Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre (DAIC) and UK lead for the AUKUS AI and Autonomy Working Group, was quoted as saying. “The AUKUS partnership is key to ensuring that the systems designed by each nation are interoperable into the future. Service personnel from one nation will be supported by capabilities that have been developed across all three nations,” she added.
Around 500 British Army personnel were deployed on Project Convergence, drawn from 1 Deep Recce Brigade Combat Team, the 2nd Battalion the Royal Yorkshire Regiment and the Ranger Regiment. As well as the UK’s Dstl, industry partners and Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group, a number of US organisations also took part, including the Air Force Research Laboratory, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center, Ground Vehicles System Center and Army Research Laboratory.
The AI and autonomy trials took place as part of AUKUS Pillar 2, under which the AUKUS partners deepen their co-operation on a range of cutting-edge military technologies.
