AUKUS partners launch Innovation Challenge 2025

The three AUKUS partners have released the trilateral AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025. The AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025 seeks innovative solutions from industry and research institutions around the world to provide capability with a focus on undersea communications and control of autonomous systems.

First held in 2024, with a focus that year on Electronic Warfare, the AUKUS Innovation Challenge series brings together the AUKUS innovation systems, so that capability can be rapidly developed and shared securely for the collective benefit of AUKUS partners.

“The launch of the AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025 demonstrates how ASCA, industry and research sectors, with AUKUS partners are working to get the best of advanced capabilities to our warfighters faster.,” commented MAJGEN Hugh Meggitt, the recently appointed Head of ASCA, which has moved from Defence’s Science & Technology Group (DSTG) to the Vice Chief of the Defence Force (VCDF) Group.

The AUKUS partners will host a market briefing on 3 April 2025 to provide industry the opportunity to obtain further information and ask questions about the Challenge.

Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) will lead the Australian component, and work with the United Kingdom’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) and the United States’ Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).

The AUKUS partners are seeking innovative solutions to 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

Further details are available on AusTender.

In February 2025, Advanced Design Technology and Penten entered into contracts with ASCA, following successful participation in last year’s AUKUS Electronic Warfare Innovation Challenge.

The contracts, valued at a combined $8 million, support the development and demonstration of electronic warfare prototypes that address Australian Defence Force operating requirements.