AUKUS ground robots pass hot electronic war test

The AUKUS trilateral security partnership has successfully tested defense autonomous ground robotics, marking a potentially significant step forward in integrating robotic technologies into the grouping’s collaborative defense strategies.

Breaking Defense reported this month that AUKUS defense officials have completed a robotic trial in what it termed a “congested electronic warfare (EW) environment.” AUKUS is comprised of the US, UK and Australia and is geared largely toward challenging and countering China’s rising assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

The Trusted Operation of Robotic Vehicles in a Contested Environment (TORVICE) trial took place in South Australia in the autumn of 2023 and was designed to observe how autonomous ground vehicles would react under attack from EW weapons.

The TORVICE trial was conducted by US Army and Australian defense officials who have previously cooperated on such efforts. It mentions that a network of robotic ground vehicles from the UK and US were configured to represent autonomous multi-dome launchers and uncrewed ground vehicles conducting long-range precision fires and associated missions. The vehicles carried no weapons during the trial.

Janes mentioned in an article this month that the TORVICE trials ran from September 4-5, 2023, and involved two UK IDV Robotics Viking vehicles and two US Ford Raptors with a US-developed autonomy system. The vehicles were then subjected to attacks from electronic warfare, electro-optical lasers, position, navigation and timing systems to test resilience, the Australian government said in a statement.

“Robotic and autonomous systems have the potential to transform the battlefield providing a force multiplier while reducing risk to warfighters…