AUKUS Pillar II fact sheet: Uncrewed Undersea Vehicles – payloads and enabling systems
Published 30 May 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/aukus-defence-ministerial-joint-statement-30-may-2026/aukus-pillar-ii-fact-sheet-uncrewed-undersea-vehicles-payloads-and-enabling-systems
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have announced the first AUKUS Pillar II signature project: cutting-edge payloads and enabling systems for AUKUS partners’ Uncrewed Undersea Vehicles (UUVs). With delivery starting in 2027, this project focuses on the advanced technologies carried by the UUVs, and how they work effectively with our AUKUS partners.
1. Undersea environment
The undersea environment is vital to the security and prosperity of AUKUS nations, supporting global trade, national defence, and international security. The signature project will strengthen our edge in the increasingly contested undersea domain.
2. What is the signature project doing?
The AUKUS Pillar II Signature Project will deliver UUV payloads and enabling systems that can be used across each country’s UUVs. The AUKUS Pillar II signature project will:
- Enable AUKUS partners to work together to protect critical national seabed infrastructure, deploy cutting‑edge surveillance, reconnaissance and strike capabilities, logistics operations and bolster superiority in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, electronic warfare and contested littoral manoeuvre.
- Increase AUKUS interoperability through key enablers, including shared standards, trilateral operational concepts, and common control systems.
- Develop and prove capabilities through trilateral exercises and experimentation, by harnessing shared resourcing and the best of our research and development communities to drive innovation.
The signature project will reinforce our collective deterrence efforts and superiority in the maritime domain through the accelerated delivery of advanced capabilities to our warfighters. The project strengthens existing AUKUS initiatives under Pillars I and II, and bolsters the shared commitment of AUKUS partners to regional stability, security and freedom of navigation.
3. Delivery
AUKUS partners are taking a phased approach to delivery:
- First, by developing national payloads that will be interchangeable and integrated by each partner nation. Each nation’s development will focus on a different type of effect the payloads will deliver.
- Then AUKUS partners will jointly develop and produce trilateral payloads and enabling technologies, including next generation payloads.
4. Key concepts
Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle: An underwater vehicle that operates without an onboard crew. UUVs can work alongside crewed ships and submarines, including to:
- provide surveillance of large ocean areas
- protect underwater infrastructure
- support naval operations
Uncrewed and undersea warfare capabilities are a force multiplier for crewed platforms and enhance the agility, asymmetry and survivability of our warfighters.
Payloads: The systems a vehicle carries to accomplish its mission, such as sensors, navigation or offensive capabilities.
Enabling systems: The systems that support how UUVs operate, such as to share information and work together with other crewed and uncrewed vehicles.