2023-05-30 00:58:10
Nn an attempt to face China in a possible conflict, the AUKUS Union, made up of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, is increasing its collaboration by focusing on High Tech applied in the military field. Among the new strategies, the replacement of nuclear submarines – now considered antiquated – is envisaged -, with swarms of drones equipped with artificial intelligence.
Submarine warfare, traditionally dominated by the use of nuclear submarines, is evolving rapidly thanks to the introduction of new technologies.
The recent AMASS project (Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms) is somewhat disturbing. It is an ambitious idea and developed in collaboration with DARPA, the US Department of Defense. The plan provides for autonomous and coordinated attacks by Swarms of drones whose origin can be air, land or submarine. Most of the details related to the project are classified, but it is known that the system will allow the attack on the different groups of drones that will be equipped with different armaments and with tools such as GPS and radar jammers. AMASS does not foresee any human intervention since the swarms will be able to coordinate autonomously on even very large operational areas. The Pentagon, however, claims that the system will be supervised by people and that they will intervene if necessary.
Unmanned drones with artificial intelligence already allow to carry out reconnaissance and attack missions more efficiently than traditional submarines.
Underwater drones have several advantages. First, they are less expensive to manufacture and maintain, allowing for more units to be available. Additionally, they can remain submerged for longer periods, avoiding exposure to enemy radar detection. It therefore seems that in the near future the automation of weapon systems will avoid the exposure of attack crews to enemy fire and on the other hand the stealth feature will be further enhanced.
Cooperation between USA, Australia and UK
AUKUS represents an important step forward in cooperation between the USA, Australia and the UK. Thanks to the sharing of information and technologies, the three nations are strengthening their ability to create a common front against China. In this context of preparing for war for trade disputes using Taiwan as a false motivation, it is trying to use artificial intelligence to revolutionize submarine warfare, allowing it to carry out reconnaissance and attack missions more accurately and destructively. Thanks to the use of advanced algorithms, underwater drones can process large amounts of data in real time, identifying hidden targets and performing evasive maneuvers. In the Ukrainian war we first saw these systems in action first in an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol and then recently against the survey ship Ivan Kursh (see Who).
US tender for the design and construction of drone swarms
DARPA has already issued a tender worth about 80 million dollars (see Who) for creating a system for exchanging information and managing thousands of units. The February 10 suppliers have already presented their proposals with the aim of moving on to the next phase, or rather testing experiments with swarms of real and virtual drones of increasing difficulty, to the point of being able to make them work harmoniously together like a destructive cloud. However, according to Gregory Allen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, the tests conducted so far with hundreds of drones have been carried out with difficulty, mainly due to the lack of efficient communication between the various components and, if the drones were to operate in poor reception, supervising their work could prove problematic.
So even if the project is not yet operational, the implementation of drone warfare represents a major shift in the defense strategy of the three AUKUS alliance nations. Nuclear submarines, while still considered high-yield weapons, have become increasingly vulnerable to new detection and attack technologies.
War emphasis and low human intelligence
Thus the AUKUS alliance has intensified China’s arms race. The Asian country is in fact investing huge resources in strengthening its submarine fleet, with the aim of acquiring a greater power projection capacity in Asia and the Pacific.
The prospect is that the future of submarine warfare will increasingly be linked to the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and underwater drones. The diffusion of military technologies represents one of the main challenges of global security and it seems that its rapid development is not sufficiently guided and rationalized by world leaderships. It goes without saying that they should understand that not everything that can be done is morally permissible, furthermore the risks of destroying millions of people is increasingly real (even South Korea is planning a weapon similar to the Russian Poseidon). Finally, it should be duly taken into account that new weapons and new technologies can in fact also be used by terrorist groups or hostile countries, creating new threats to international peace and security.
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