The Emerging Role of UUVs: AUKUS as a Platform for Development

The Trump administration describes the Indo-Pacific as the “priority theater,” and is pursuing a strategy to “deter by denial” growing Chinese assertiveness. AUKUS, the defense agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plays an important role in this deterrence. While Pillar I focuses on arming Australia with nuclear-powered and conventionally armed submarines, Pillar II coordinates cooperation on emerging and advanced technologies—key to maintaining military technological edge. One emerging platform which stands to benefit from this cooperation are unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs). Accelerating UUV development in the AUKUS partners’ fleets is critical for creating asymmetric capabilities and bolstering deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. This would complement the larger and more expensive defense systems required in the region, draw on cutting-edge Western technology, and exploit the strengths of AUKUS Pillar II, including information sharing, testing and evaluation, and defense industrial base integration. At a time when China is expanding its navy, becoming increasingly assertive, and Western industrial bases struggle to keep pace, the United States and its allies must pursue these cost-effective technologies.

The Role of UUVs

While surface and aerial drones gain the most attention due to their effectiveness in Ukraine, submarine drones, consisting of UUVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), represent another emerging capability of growing interest to navies. UUVs come in various sizes and are used for a multitude of missions. Some UUVs are six feet long, while extra-large UUVs (XLUUVs) can reach the length of a school bus. Their mission sets are well-suited for both military and civilian purposes. These range from anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions to survey, resource exploration, and search and recovery missions.

UUVs’ modularity allows for flexibility in their use cases and easier assembly and transportation. Many modular UUVs can be shipped within a standard 40-foot shipping container. Depending on size, various types can be launched from shore, pier-side, a ship, or a submarine.

Limiting factors for UUVs include range, power, capability, and data transmission. Smaller UUVs are cheaper and are limited to shorter, more specific missions due to battery, payload, and depth limitations. Larger UUVs offer longer ranges of up to 6,500 nautical miles and greater depth capabilities but come at a higher cost. UUVs typically operate in conjunction with a surface vessel for better data transmission, as the deep sea poses challenges for signal reception and transmission. Compared to submarines, XLUUVs can dive deeper, carry more versatile payloads, and conduct surveillance missions more effectively while saving on cost and labor.

It is important to emphasize that UUVs won’t replace traditional capabilities like submarines; rather they will be used in combination with them. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Indo-Pacific. U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Samuel Paparo questioned the “either-or” mentality of drones replacing large systems and emphasized that in the 8,000-mile-wide Pacific theater, unmanned systems are not going to get the job done by themselves. To project power in the Western Pacific, legacy systems like aircraft carriers and submarines will remain vital to cover the expanse of the theater, with UUVs adding multiplier effects through ISR or strike missions.

The AUKUS partners each have UUV programs at varying stages of development. The Royal Australian Navy is working with Anduril, a U.S. firm, on developing the Ghost Shark XLAUV, which will be able to conduct both ISR and strike missions. The Royal Navy’s Project CETUS, which culminated in the XV Excalibur XLUUV, is a demonstrator program being fulfilled by MSubs, a British defense company. The United States Navy is procuring six of Boeing's Orca XLUUV, with the first expected to be delivered in summer 2025.

Pushing this momentum in the AUKUS countries is the private sector, which is at the cutting-edge of UUV research and development. British-based BAE Systems is developing the Herne XLAUV, partnering with Cellula Robotics, a Canadian firm, and has attracted interest from navies globally. U.S. firms in the mix include Northrop Grumman’s Manta Ray program, L3 Harris’ Iver family of UUVs, and HII’s Remus family of UUVs. Kongsberg, a Norwegian firm, also supplies its Hugin family of UUVs to Western navies.

How AUKUS Pillar II Can Accelerate UUV Development

Leveraging the demand for UUVs in the Pacific and Western technology, AUKUS Pillar II can drive UUV development in multiple ways. First, information sharing allows for increased collaboration between navies and companies on best practices, research, and applications for UUVs. This is being executed by multiple working groups established under the Pillar II framework for sharing information on AI and machine learning applications, additional capabilities, and developing an interchangeable AUKUS UUV. Further, an intelligence sharing framework covering these areas, like the one for electronic warfare stood up in October 2024, would speed up UUV capability development in each country.

Second, cooperation between navies allows for testing and evaluating new use cases for UUVs. This is being undertaken consistently in the partnership. In November 2023, AUKUS partners conducted a joint exercise testing UUVs for protecting critical underwater infrastructure. This was in conjunction with surface ships, including the Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Guidance. Experimenting with more complex UUV capabilities, such as striking or being able to launch from submarine torpedo tubes, could further enhance their effectiveness. Torpedo tube launch has recently been demonstrated with L3 Harris’ Iver4 AUV for the U.S. Navy to create an interchangeable UUV for the Virginia-class and SSN-AUKUS submarines. A standard UUV design emerging from AUKUS would be a major boost for joint naval operations and for scaling production capacity across the AUKUS industrial base.

Lastly, increasing industrial base integration fueled by information sharing and easing regulatory barriers is perhaps the biggest opportunity offered by AUKUS. In August 2024, the United States amended the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), providing exemptions for defense export control licensing requirements between the AUKUS partners. This not only enables more efficient collaboration between AUKUS navies but also facilitates greater cooperation within the private industry.

Australia’s Ghost Shark is an example. Anduril is focusing on scaling Ghost Shark production to create “affordable, autonomous mass,” and is building a manufacturing facility in Australia. It is also building a manufacturing site for its Dive-LD UUV (the design on which the Ghost Shark is based) in the United States. More integration of manufacturing capacity and supply chains across AUKUS partners’ industrial bases will increase the scalability of UUV production.

The AUKUS partners have clear opportunities to maintain deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. UUVs, in conjunction with other legacy systems, can harness advanced Western technology while offering a more cost-effective system for their navies. At the same time, the partners gain collective expertise on UUV mission sets and build the industrial capacity required for their scaling. As China’s military becomes more ambitious and assertive in the Indo-Pacific, the AUKUS partners must think and act creatively to address the security challenges of the 21^st century.

Ryan Beane is a former intern with the Australia Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.