Split between Virginia and Washington in the USA and waters off the southwestern coast of Australia over six weeks, Exercise Lanternfish saw Royal Navy divers and hydrographic experts run out remotely-operated systems alongside their American and Australian comrades.
The team from the Diving and Threat Exploitation Group demonstrated their VideoRay Defender—a small remotely-operated submersible used to locate mines and underwater explosive devices.
And experts from the Hydrographic eXploitation Group (HXG), based in Devonport, launched their Autonomous Underwater System, the Teledyne Gavia. Thanks to its modular design, it can carry out varied AUKUS missions depending on its sensor fit.
They were used to carry out surveillance of Critical Undersea Infrastructure (CUI) and to rehearse responses to potential hostile activity in a realistic operational setting, operating as part of a wider ‘ecosystem’ of sensors and underwater vehicles to give greater understanding of the subsea environment.
The goal was to improve how nations detect, monitor and respond to potential threats below the surface, allowing participants to share expertise, collaborate and develop common operating procedures to ensure the three nations can work seamlessly together be it in peacetime or conflict.
Lt Cdr Mark Wilton, from HXG, said: “Our Seabed Warfare team worked extremely closely with our AUKUS partners, demonstrating true integration through the seamless use of Royal Australian Navy equipment when required.
“We completed a number of Gavia missions on the exercise—acoustic calibration, night-time and independent, unaided. The team really delivered and their qualified and experienced personnel have grown exponentially.”
Rising threats from foreign state actors to critical undersea infrastructure—such as the covert operations of a Russian submarine in and around the UK earlier this year—have increased the need for the UK and its allies to detect, monitor and respond to the danger.
The exercise was conducted under the AUKUS Pillar 2 trilateral defense agreement, which concentrates on collaborative, accelerated deployment of advanced military capabilities by the three partner nations.
Lanternfish took participants to the next level of operations and integration, shifting from theory and testing to live, operational activity, demonstrating how partners addressed shared security challenges through closer cooperation.
Lanternfish also reflected the Royal Navy’s transition towards a Hybrid Navy, where crewed and uncrewed capabilities work alongside each other to enhance operational effectiveness.
“These events provide a fantastic opportunity to test our interoperability in a real world setting and allow us to iterate our capabilities at pace,” said Commodore Marcus Rose, Deputy Director Defence Underwater.
Planning for the next AUKUS Pillar 2 operational exercise, to demonstrate allied and partner integration across maritime, air, cyber and space domains, is already underway.
