AUKUS nations to develop underwater drones through defence pact

Unmanned undersea vehicles will be developed under the AUKUS defence pact, US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth said.

Defence leaders from the US, Britain and Australia met in Singapore on Saturday to discuss plans to "step on the accelerator" and progress the development of cutting-edge military technologies.

The security pact will see Australia acquire a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to patrol the Pacific Ocean in a bid to counter China's expansion in the region.

Under "pillar two" of the agreement, the countries will collaborate to develop advanced defence technology, including quantum ‌computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology.

AUKUS, which was formed by the three countries in 2021, is part of their efforts to push back against China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific ‌region. China has called the AUKUS pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.

Standing beside UK Defence Secretary John Healey and Australian defence minister Richard Marles on the sidelines of the Shangri-La conference, Mr Hegseth said the new unmanned vessels would boost the pact's power.

"The signature project will deliver ​a suite of highly adaptable multi-mission UUV (uncrewed underwater vehicle) payloads designed to support undersea operations and maintain our collective ​advantage in the maritime domain," Mr Hegseth said.

Mr Healey said the UUVs would strengthen all three countries' ability to respond to threats, including adversaries targeting underwater cables and pipelines.

"This will rapidly give our forces the very most advanced battlefield technologies as together we produce a range of cutting-edge sensors and weapons ⁠systems for undersea drones," he said.

He added: "For too long in AUKUS, we talked too much and delivered too little."

The event marked Mr Hegseth's second time addressing the forum, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

His address last year drew criticism from Beijing after he warned of the threat posed by China, particularly its stance towards Taiwan.

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In his speech at this year's conference, Mr Hegseth said China could not be allowed to dominate the region.

"There is rightful alarm regarding China's historic military build up and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond," he said.

"We share a clear-eyed assessment of that security environment and a mutual understanding that a Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power and undermine the equilibrium we all seek to preserve."

Addressing the forum after Mr Hegseth, Mr Marles said that while the international rules-based order is not perfect, the "task before us, all of us, including the great powers, is the renovation of that order, not its dismemberment".

"When the rules apply, smaller states have agency," he said.

"When the rules yield to power, sovereignty becomes, as others have put it, the purview of the powerful, and no state in this room today, whatever its size, is well served by that outcome."

(c) Sky News 2026: AUKUS nations to develop underwater drones through defence pact