AUKUS Growing Cooperation in AI’s Military Applications

The AUKUS military alliance of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States has achieved some gains cooperating in the digital fields of artificial intelligence and robotics, a U.S. Department of Defense official said. 

Michael Horowitz, DOD deputy assistant secretary for force development and emerging capabilities, stressed that software is not a barrier to AI cooperation among allies and partners. According to Horowitz, the AUKUS digital cooperation includes joint work on an algorithm that will enable the allies to access data from each country’s sonobuoys, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

The useful information gathered can then be fed to each ally’s P8 aircraft for anti-submarine warfare, the DOD official added. 

Speaking at an online Center for Strategic and International Studies event, Horowitz also cited the AUKUS development of software for information sharing on submarine-hunting missions over vast areas like the Indo-Pacific region. 

Digital solutions were also employed in previous AUKUS exercises on air and ground vehicles’ interplay involving drones, battle tanks and a self-propelled cannon. Many of the allied capabilities were demonstrated in the first AUKUS artificial intelligence and autonomy trial hosted by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in May 2023.