The UK and US fire a torpedo from an uncrewed undersea drone for the first time, as the PM pushes global AI cooperation at the UN

[BigDog10]

The UK government has announced two connected milestones from the UN General Assembly this week. On artificial intelligence, the Prime Minister used his UNGA address to push for global cooperation on AI, framing the technology as a force for good capable of reducing living costs and strengthening global security, while also announcing a new AI and Autonomy partnership between the two countries, pairing the Ministry of Defence's Rapid AI Delivery Taskforce with the US Department of War's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office specifically to protect critical infrastructure and strengthen shared technological capabilities.

Separately, and arguably more dramatically, the UK and US achieved what is being described as a genuine world first, successfully firing a heavyweight torpedo from Excalibur, a 12 metre uncrewed undersea drone manufactured in Plymouth, marking the first time either country has launched a torpedo from an uncrewed underwater vessel rather than a traditional crewed submarine. The torpedo itself was jointly developed by the US and Australia and is designed specifically to be capable of sinking both surface ships and deep diving submarines, with the test itself carried out in UK waters.

The government has framed the achievement as a significant breakthrough for Euro-Atlantic security and NATO's undersea advantage specifically, building directly on the existing AUKUS defence partnership between the UK, US and Australia. The Prime Minister summarised the underlying philosophy behind both announcements together, stating that the two countries are at their strongest when working with partners to tackle the most complex shared challenges they face.

Prime Minister drives global work on artificial intelligence at UNGA as UK and US make history with firing from undersea dronewww.gov.uk

[Sentinel38]

Pairing the Ministry of Defence's Rapid AI Delivery Taskforce directly with the US Department of War's equivalent office suggests this AI partnership is aimed squarely at military applications rather than the more general economic framing used in the wider UNGA speech.

[SuperPosition24]

Curious how other nations react to this milestone specifically, an uncrewed vessel capable of this kind of weapons deployment is exactly the sort of capability that tends to accelerate similar development efforts elsewhere pretty quickly.

[HenryThierry]

Building this directly on the existing AUKUS partnership makes sense strategically, but it also signals a fairly clear continued arms race dynamic specifically around undersea capabilities among these three allied nations.

[SoloOrca]

Firing a torpedo from an uncrewed undersea drone rather than a crewed submarine is a genuinely significant milestone for naval warfare, removing the crew from that specific role changes the entire risk calculation involved.

[Compiled Wolf]

A 12 metre uncrewed drone capable of launching a heavyweight torpedo against deep diving submarines is a genuinely serious piece of hardware, this is not some small scale experimental proof of concept design.