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Australia’s next strategic edge will be built beneath the waves, combining autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and AUKUS cooperation to reshape the underwater battlespace.
In a special Defence Connect Podcast episode recorded for the ADSTAR 2026 summit, Admiral Stephen Hughes, on the eve of his retirement, and Chief of Air and Maritime Dr Ninh Duong outline how the succession of Defence Strategic Reviews since 2023 has crystallised a seismic shift in Australian naval posture. The Indo-Pacific underwater domain, they contend, has become irreversibly more contested, more congested and increasingly transparent – demanding not just new platforms, but fundamentally reimagined operational concepts.
The centrepiece of this transformation remains Australia’s commitment to conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines. But equally critical, ADML Hughes emphasises, is the emergence of a distributed, scalable ecosystem of uncrewed systems: the Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle developed with Anduril, the C2 Robotics Speartooth platform and surface vessels like Ocius Bluebottle. These systems, he argues, function not as replacements for crewed capability, but as force multipliers – saturating the environment, absorbing risk and freeing high-end platforms to deliver the deterrent effect only sophisticated platforms can provide.
Yet the genuine strategic revolution lies not in platforms themselves but in the algorithms, payloads and interoperable control architectures that AUKUS Pillar 2 is cultivating. Dr Duong stresses that Australia’s comparative advantage rests in the convergence of technologies: advanced sensing, edge processing, AI-enabled decision support, and the governance frameworks that will allow sovereign capability to scale across allied networks.
Both speakers emphasise a persistent communication gap: the failure of public discourse to articulate the integrated logic thread binding the National Defence Strategy, the Defence Industry Strategy, and emerging science and technology roadmaps. Without that coherence in messaging, they warn, political pressure and social media fragmentation risk fracturing public support for the whole ambitious edifice.
As Australia readies for the post-Hughes era, the maritime imperative remains unambiguous – and technologically, strategically and diplomatically complex.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team
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