This crucial sub-theme explores the changing balance of factors that navies must understand to achieve and sustain their advantage in the Undersea Battlespace.  That advantage may be in exploiting the undersea environment or preventing an opponent doing so.   

Aspects include: 

• The impact of a changing strategic environment and complex, environmental extremes in the undersea battlespace. 

• Identification and management of evolving threats and the need for rapid response and assurance of target defeat in congested subsea theatres. 

• Modern Anti-Submarine and Anti-Surface ISR & Warfare (ASW and ASuW), including survivability, stealth and offensive operations. 

• Seabed (SBW) and mine warfare (MW) including area defence and protection of critical undersea Infrastructure. 

• Training, evaluation and testing, capability sustainment.

• Multi-vehicle, system and domain integration.

This sub-theme examines how technologies and knowledge from different domains and disciplines can be integrated to deliver smarter, more resilient undersea defence solutions: 

• Cross-domain innovation (including integration of seabed to space, cyber, air-maritime integration). 

• Climate and oceanographic science with defence implications. 

• Artificial intelligence data-driven decision support: big data analytics, automated data classification, anomaly detection and sensor data processing.  

• Data science, digital twins, and decision support tools.

• Advanced materials, energy systems, bio-mimetics and sustainable technology.

• Human performance in undersea operations (e.g. diving, psychology, health).

• Multi-use technologies that could be adapted for defence needs and advance defence capabilities.

This sub-theme focuses on the development, integration and sustainment of crewed platforms, autonomous, uncrewed, and remotely operated vehicles. 

• Programme-level development, build and sustainment of submarines and autonomous and uncrewed vehicles and their systems.

• Improvements in stealthy operation, efficient propulsion, endurance, navigation, human factors and habitability, supportability, modularity and communications arrangements. 

• Integration of autonomous, uncrewed and remotely operated vehicles to into the force structure to maximise advantage in the undersea domain, including extending reach, endurance and functionality. 

• Energetics for long-duration missions, low-power operations, and green propulsion. 

• Collaborative autonomy, i.e. multi-platform coordination and control.

• Navigation and detection in complex undersea environments. 

• Incorporating autonomy into existing fleets, CMSs and C2 infrastructure.  

Sensors, weapons and countermeasures addresses the interdependent challenges needed to deal with emerging threats in dense and dynamic subsea environments.  Aspects of interest include: 

• Combat management systems including AI enabled decision support: big data analytics, automated data classification, anomaly detection and sensor data processing 

• Collaborative autonomy and seamless incorporation into existing C2 frameworks 

• Developments in undersea sensing and in acoustic and electronic warfare 

• Modularity and adaptability in weapons and payload integration 

• Next generation torpedoes, smart payloads and delivery platforms  

• Advanced defensive systems and countermeasures 

Innovation and investment address the urgent need to co-opt new sectors and suppliers, ideas and technologies to introduce complementary solutions and manage bespoke developments to enable production at scale and time to contribute to the challenging undersea defence arena. 

• Artificial intelligence and autonomy.

• Quantum science and their applications (e.g. computing, navigation and communications).

• Industry-government collaboration and trust-building. 

• Broad and agile research & development and procurement, including practicable management of the demand pull and technology push paradigm for long duration submarine and short duration uncrewed vehicle programmes. 

• Accelerated procurement models, including modular upgrades and COTS adaptation, including lifecycle costs, sustainability.

• Providing scale and depth of research, production and support arrangements and infrastructures. 

• New solutions and innovations to offset industrial and personnel constraints. 

• Budget optimisation and innovation under funding pressures.