Royal Navy works with United States and Australians for underwater warfare trials
Sailors from the navy’s Diving and Threat Exploitation Group and Mine and Threat Exploitation Group took part in the exercise off Virginia Beach, near the world’s largest naval base in Norfolk, USA, as part of the AUKUS defence partnership.
Personnel from Australia, the UK and the US came together under AUKUS Pillar 2, which develops advanced capabilities to benefit both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security. During this exercise, the partnership focused on enhancing the nations’ sub-sea and seabed warfare capabilities.
They chartered Island Pride, a commercial boat from robotics company Ocean Infinity, and took advantage of its extensive hangar and commercially-available HUGIN Superior autonomous underwater vehicles which gather data using a range of sensors.
The exercise challenged the three navies to use both current and prototype technology to find, monitor and remove seabed threats at varying depths.