"In a significant landmark for AUKUS, the 3 nations have trialled a futuristic integration of autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time," the government said in a statement.
"Testing saw the deployment of a series of AI-enabled uncrewed aerial vehicles that allow a human operator to locate, disable and destroy targets on the ground."
The trial took place as part of the annual US-hosted multinational Project Convergence experimentation exercise. It was part of the AUKUS Resilient and Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Technologies trials, according to the statement.
AUKUS is a trilateral defense partnership announced by the US, the UK and Australia in September 2021. The first pillar of the partnership concerns the creation of an Australian fleet of nuclear submarines using US and UK technology.
The second pillar involves the development of a range of technologies, including underwater robotics, quantum electronics, cybersecurity and electronic warfare capabilities, supersonic weapons and defense mechanisms against them.