AUKUS Pillar II's Maritime Big Play: The performance was remarkable, yet the evaluation process may be open to subjective interpretation.
More than 200 defense experts, academics, and industry representatives convened on Australia's east coast last week for the most recent iteration of the AUKUS Pillar II Maritime Big Play exercise. This meticulously choreographed demonstration showcased the potential form of trilateral cooperation between Australia, the UK, and the US in practical application.
According to official reports, the event proved to be a resounding success. Approximately 30 "next-generation capabilities" were evaluated in a scenario characterized by defense chiefs as a "challenging tactical environment." The emphasis of the exhibition was on systems developed in Australia, including Innovaero's OWL-B disposable attack weapon, which successfully hit a distant target, eliciting applause from the assembled government representatives and industry partners. Also on display was C2 Robotics' Speartooth underwater vehicle, which traversed the water silently as a "test platform for novel payload configurations" — that is, as a transport vehicle.
The visual elements were particularly noteworthy. The official press release did not address the question of whether the substance lived up to the hype.
To ensure a balanced assessment, it is essential to acknowledge the genuine utility of such exercises for the participants. The convergence of operators, scientists, and industry representatives in a single location, albeit for a brief period, has the potential to yield insights that are often beyond the reach of years of planning in boardrooms. A live test of electronic warfare instruments from Advanced Design Technology and PentenAmio was conducted, and it is noteworthy that Australian-made systems played a prominent role, given the country's historical lack of prominence in the manufacturing of cutting-edge defense equipment.
However, it is equally important to acknowledge that this was an exercise. Not an operation. This is not an operational capability. The following exercise is the third in a series that began in August 2025, with Japan invited to the inaugural iteration. As is customary with the AUKUS program, the objectives remain somewhat distant.
The AUKUS pact was initiated with considerable fanfare in September 2021. Five years later, Pillar II—which encompasses advanced capabilities such as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, electronic warfare, and more—remains in the testing and trial phase. Since its inception, the organization has expanded its focus areas from four to eight, which could be indicative of either ambitious goals or an inability to decline requests. Defence analysts have been less diplomatic, describing Pillar II as "a solution in search of a problem," with an agenda so broad it risks being unmanageable.
One of the more subtle yet revealing details of last week's exercise pertained to its origins. The Maritime Big Play emerged partially from the AUKUS innovation competitions, wherein defense companies exhibit their capabilities to governments. The Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025, which contributed to this exercise, offered prize money of up to $8 million for three nations.
The total amount of the settlement was $8 million. The allocation of financial resources by three of the world's most affluent liberal democracies for the joint development of maritime warfare technology is indicative of a budget more appropriate for a regional science fair than a trilateral strategic partnership. This figure prompts the following question: The primary question is whether this initiative constitutes a genuine military program or merely an elaborate networking exercise for participants in the defense industry.
It must be acknowledged that the planners of the AUKUS program have recognized that the initial funding allocated for Pillar II was "relatively modest." There are plans to increase it. However, as is evident to any individual who has been following the program from its inception, AUKUS has never been lacking in its plans.
The most concrete near-term AUKUS deliverable remains the rotation of US and UK nuclear-powered submarines through HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, currently targeted for 2027 — six years after the pact was signed. This is a Pillar I commitment, not Pillar II. For Pillar II specifically, there is no equivalent date circled on the calendar, no capability that defence ministers can point to and say: by this date, this system will be operationally deployed.
