The Royal Navy has demonstrated for the first time that its new Experimental Vessel (XV) Excalibur can be controlled from the other side of the world, with operators in Australia directing the uncrewed submarine while it was submerged in UK waters.
The test, carried out in July during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025’s “Maritime Big Play” series, was part of the AUKUS Pillar II programme to develop and share advanced technologies, according to a Royal Navy news release.
The 12-metre Excalibur is the Royal Navy’s first Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV), unveiled earlier this year after a three-year development project known as Cetus.
Control of the UK vessel from a remote operating centre in Australia, more than 10,000 miles from its home at HMNB Devonport in Plymouth, marked what the Navy described as a milestone in uncrewed system interoperability. According to Commodore Marcus Rose, RN, Deputy Director Underwater Battlespace, “The XLUUV exercise was a big step forward in our ability to operate uncrewed systems interchangeably with Australia.”
The exercise also saw the UK, Australia, and the United States working with Japan to advance underwater acoustic communications. It follows AUKUS partners’ decision in 2024 to explore interoperability with Japan’s maritime autonomous systems as a first step in Pillar II collaboration.
Captain Keith Taylor, RN, the UK Senior Responsible Owner for Maritime Big Play, said in the release, “This exercise demonstrates how we are exploiting the learning from our experimentation, by applying it to the Royal Navy’s growing arsenal of Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles; taking experimentation into the hands of the war fighter.”
Maritime Big Play is a series of joint experiments aimed at integrating robotics and autonomous systems into naval operations. Building on last year’s events, the 2025 iteration placed greater emphasis on command-and-control across vast distances and in contested environments.
This seems like the most basic piece of internet control possible being heralded as a major accomplishment, my wife regularly controls the vacuum cleaner in our holiday house but she is not looking for a medal for that.
Here’s one anyway 🥇
Hi Jim, whilst I’m impressed by your good Lady’s ability to remote control a vacuum cleaner (I can only work the lounge lamps) from a distance, I doubt that she is using secure comms, multiple links and various MOD style gateways (and probably differing protocols) to achieve her aims. It’s not so much the actual control demonstrated, but the proof of a concept, I believe.
Keep up the good work Mrs Jim.
The challenging part is doing it while submerged, radio communications do not penetrate water well.
…and not getting hacked.
If my missus could hoover in these conditions, she’d deffo get a medal!
These will operate like the Mars Rovers. They will surface briefly to receive an encrypted package of instructions and submerge. With the on board Artificial Intelligence carrying out those instructions.
Have they found seas on mars.. amazing 🤩
😆
Your vacuum cleaner isn’t under water though is it.
Could be an “Aquavac” ?
American president controls British Prime Minister from 4k miles away. What’s new. :->
I’d say it was more worrying that Putin controls the US President. If trying to manage a relationship with a difficult (shall we say…) person like Trump in the UK’s best interest is ‘being controlled’ he’s doing a damn sight better job than his predecessors.
Manage? You mean behaving like a door mat. Starmer is a one term prime minister. Come 2029 Labour are gone. As for better, define it. 10% tariffs and a terrible trade agreement is better? Maybe buying F35A to carry american nukes on British soil is better? Or plunging the economy into permanent stagnation with 1.1% growth and a growing pile of debt coupled with the highest taxes in our history. No thanks.
Optimist or what?
Doubt he is going anywhere soon. The Cons have hit a slope do deep it makes the Marianas trench look shallow and Reform are just hollow, forgive me, how often as the MP for Clacton been to er, his constituency, er, where is it, Clacton?
Nope, Labour are in for at least another term. Time to drink your pint and dry your tears.
Nope. Labour will be out of office in 2029. I’ll bet you that pint and raise it with some pork scratchings. :->
I’m Muslim.
Alcohol free pint and beef scratchings for you then…
160 billion on pensioners.
There’s your growing pile of debt.
You’ve forgotten how lick spittle Tory PM’s were to Trump. But no, you’ve convinced me. In just over a year he’s destroyed the magnificent legacy that fourteen years of Tory government left him. How could I be so blind ?
Who me? I can’t stand any of them. There all full of it. I just had to laugh at the suggestion that the current clown is somehow better than the previous ones.
“According to Commodore Marcus Rose, RN, Deputy Director of Underwater Battlespace, ‘The XLUUV exercise was a big step forward in our ability to operate uncrewed systems interchangeably with Australia. The operators initially complained of feeling dizzy, but after flipping their monitors upside down, they reported no further issues.’”
Is this some kind of joke?!
#Day3
Regarding Day3, It now looks like 50% of our entire, Vast, Enormous CSG (POW and Dauntless) has now had to join the broken down F35 in Japan. Repairs are going to take 3 weeks.
I’d definitely rather spend three weeks in Japan than India.
They are just chancing their arms at a nice Long port visit in Japan….
The control function was only connected to the BBQ on/off button
So it took an Aussie 10,000 miles away to get actually get one of our subs to sea?
Back of the net!
Fishing Net more like.