SINGAPORE — Defense ministers from the UK, Australia and the US on Saturday announced a joint partnership to develop and deploy “cutting-edge” underwater drone technologies as part of a push to boost maritime security. The announcement, which came during a security conference in Singapore, is part of a trilateral military alliance between the nations known as Aukus. The alliance began in 2021 and is intended to offer deeper integration of defence-related technology and science as well as increased information sharing. The uncrewed undersea vehicle (UUV) technology is expected to be ready by next year. While the project’s total cost was not stated, UK Defence Secretary John Healey said his nation would contribute £150m ($201m). The Aukus defence pact affirmed the three countries would develop nuclear submarines and share military expertise. It is widely seen as a way to counter China’s growing maritime presence in the Indo-Pacific and its role in rising tensions in disputed territories such as the South China Sea. The UUV technology is the first signature project under Aukus’s Pillar Two, in which the partner countries work together on “advanced capabilities” in areas such as long-range hypersonic missiles, undersea robotics and AI. A joint statement said the new project would see “cutting edge payloads and enabling systems” developed for UUVs that could protect seabed infrastructure, conduct strikes, and conduct surveillance, reconnaissance and logistics operations. Healey also said that sensors and weapons systems would be developed for the UUVs, which would “rapidly give our forces advanced battle technologies”. It would also help them deal with threats “including to our underwater cables and pipelines on which so much of our daily life depends”. Such efforts would strengthen deterrence in the Pacific, Atlantic and waters in the High North, he added. The UK and Europe are connected by a series of vital underwater cables and pipelines, providing the UK with gas and electricity as well as internet access. Damage to these links has the potential to cause disruption to global communications as well as energy transmission. Such cables have been increasingly under threat from vessels dragging anchors over the seabed, with both Russian and Chinese boats suspected of having deliberately taken such action. In 2025, the UK announced the Atlantic Bastion program, a system of autonomous vessels and artificial intelligence working with warships and aircraft to protect undersea cables and pipelines. The Ministry of Defence said at the time that the program was a “direct response to a resurgence in Russian submarine and underwater activity”. Unmanned underwater vehicles are also key weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal as it continues to battle Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces. Ukrainian troops have notched up some notable strikes using naval drones, with the technology helping Kyiv practically wipe out Russia’s Black Sea Fleet earlier in the war, which began after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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