The Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) is transforming the way breakthrough military solutions are delivered by rapidly translating innovative technologies into capabilities that will help take Defence further, faster.
In December 2023, Defence Ministers announced the launch of an innovation challenge series for AUKUS Pillar II. The previous two challenges were focused on Electronic Warfare (EW) and undersea Command, Control and Communications.
This is a trilaterally agreed challenge and will utilise a harmonised competition process with individual submissions entered into one of the three AUKUS partners’ individual submission portals (Australia, United Kingdom and United States). The challenge is being run as a two-stage competition across the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) in Australia, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) in the United Kingdom and the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) in the United States.
AUKUS partners are seeking to research and develop innovations to enable the synchronisation and teaming of multiple undersea systems. Innovations are invites that enable some or all of the following Desired Capability Effects:
- Provide near real time communications between Undersea Vehicles (UVs)
- Provide near real time communications from UVs to Command and Control (C2) Systems /Battle Management System (BMS)
- Provide near real time communications between seabed systems to UVs and C2 System and BMS
- Provide a system that can optimally allocate the right asset to the right task in a dynamic and complex environment
- Provide optimal bandwidth utilisation and effective range, and perform in a contested/congested environment
For full details and requirements for the AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025: Undersea Communications and Autonomy visit Current ATM View – AUKUS02-2025-ITR: AusTender
There will be a supporting launch Webinar run by each of the three AUKUS partners. In Australia, this is scheduled for 3 April 2025 at 1100 (AEDT).
