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Royal Navy and AUKUS nations achieve firsts in protecting Critical Undersea Infrastructure
28 August 2025
The Royal Navy’s experts in underwater threats tested the use of uncrewed and autonomous technology to safeguard critical underwater infrastructure during a series of trials in Australia.
As part of AUKUS Pillar II Undersea Warfare Capability Development, the Royal Navy’s Mine Warfare Battlestaff, Mine and Threat Exploitation Group, and Diving and Threat Exploitation Group participated in Exercise Talisman Sabre 25. The exercise focused on the use of uncrewed and remotely operated underwater vehicles to protect critical undersea infrastructure.
Building on previous AUKUS Pillar II Seabed Warfare exercises, the trials marked a significant step forward in trilateral collaboration. It ensured a deeper level of shared understanding and improved the development of tactics, techniques, and procedures to counter increasingly complex threats.
Despite challenging southern hemisphere winter conditions, AUKUS partners deployed aboard the Australian Defence Vessel Guidance for the two-week exercise. Designed to simulate real-world scenarios, the event was divided into distinct phases, during which several trilateral milestones were achieved.
For the first time, a battlestaff had seabed warfare command and control of a trilateral group from a ship at sea, deployed underwater drones and more than 17 joint remotely-operated vehicle missions were successfully conducted.
This exercise not only fostered joint capability development but also provided a realistic operational scenario that my team had to navigate
The UK contingent was led by Lieutenant Commander Josh Beale, Executive Officer of the MWBS team.
He said: “The opportunity for the UK to lead the trilateral team has been a real privilege. This exercise not only fostered joint capability development but also provided a realistic operational scenario that my team had to navigate - and may be called upon to fulfil in future operations.”
Exercise Talisman Sabre is one of a series of integrated experiments and exercises used by the AUKUS Pillar II seabed warfare team to enhance capability development and improve interoperability across partner nations.
Commodore Marcus Rose RN, Deputy Director Underwater Battlespace, added: “These operational exercises are an excellent opportunity to accelerate our understanding of seabed warfare capabilities and to get them to warfighting as quickly as possible.”
Plans are already in motion for another integrated experiment later this year, followed by a large-scale exercise comparable to Talisman Sabre in 2026.