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Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States jointly tested the deployment of AI-enabled autonomous aerial vehicles for the first time in a military environment, helping human operators to locate and destroy ground-based targets.
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During the test, drones from each of the three partner nations operated in the same airspace with support from an AUKUS AI team, which refined and deployed artificial intelligence on the platforms.
Held as part of the annual US-hosted Project Convergence, the trials, which formed part of the AUKUS Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies (RAAIT) series, saw a reduction in target identification time while maintaining appropriate levels of human control.
The capabilities developed under RAAIT are expected to be incorporated into Australian, British, and American platforms with a goal of improving response times against current and emerging threats.
The Defence Science and Technology Group collaborated with participants from the UK and the US as part of the project.
Commodore Rachel Singleton, head of the UK Defence Artificial Intelligence Centre (DAIC), and UK lead for AUKUS AI and Autonomy Working Group, told the British Ministry of Defence that interoperability between the three nations was at the heart of the project.
“Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies provides the opportunity to develop, test, and trial AI models on autonomous systems.
“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.”
It comes as the United Kingdom confirmed it had tested a counter drone directed energy weapons system from the back of a British Army vehicle for the first time.
The Raytheon High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) capability was mounted to a Wolfhound armoured vehicle at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s (Dstl) range in Porton Down, where it was tested at full power.
The capability was developed to defeat NATO Class 1 drones, which cover micro, mini and small drones, while being integrated into large-scale air defence systems leveraging radar and command and control platforms.
The British Ministry of Defence has concluded that the capability can be deployed across a range of platforms.
The Raytheon HELWS variant employed during the test was developed by a British consortium, which also included Frazer-Nash, NP Aerospace, LumOptica, Blighter Surveillance Systems, and Cambridge Pixel.
