Members of the AUKUS pact - Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States - have announced plans to test a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that they say will help their navies track submarines in the Pacific.
The three defense chiefs said in a joint statement that advanced AI algorithms would be used to quickly process sonar data collected by underwater equipment from America, Australia and Britain.
"These joint advances will allow for timely high-volume data exploitation, improving our anti-submarine warfare capabilities," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, along with his Australian and British counterparts Richard Marles and Grant Shapps, respectively, pointed out.
They added that their navies would use the AI algorithms on several systems, including the US P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, to process data from sonobuoys - devices used to detect and identify underwater objects.
The planned tests are part of the three countries' Advanced Capabilities Pillar, also known as Pillar 2, a trilateral program that includes various technologies and capabilities ostensibly aimed at promoting security in the Indo-Pacific region.
In late May, AUKUS members held trials of AI technology for the first time to track military targets "in a representative environment in real time" within the Pillar 2 framework, according to the UK Ministry of Defense.
The ministry insisted that the development of AI technologies would have a "massive impact" on the military capabilities of AUKUS.
AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the US, and the UK, signed in 2021, under which the US and the UK will, among other things, supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.
Russia, China, and North Korea lashed out at AUKUS, warning that the pact may prompt a new regional arms race. The AUKUS agreement, which also includes a new naval base in Western Australia from which US warships can operate, was denounced by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning as something that will fuel tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mao accused Washington of "pursuing its own interests and adhering to a zero-sum game mindset," adding that the result of US policy would "inevitably be increased tension and a threat to regional peace and stability."
Beijing also emphasized that AUKUS provides for the transfer of large quantities of highly enriched weapons-grade uranium from nuclear-weapon states to a non-nuclear-weapon state, and therefore the pact poses a serious risk of nuclear proliferation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, cautioned that "the Anglo-Saxon world with the creation of bloc structures like AUKUS […] is making a serious bid for confrontation for many years to come."