The Future of AUKUS with Advanced Collaboration.

Since the first use of Morse code during the Crimean War, armies have recognised the effective use of telecommunications in providing battlefield and strategic advantage. As the complexity of modern defence environments increase, what can we expect from next generation technology, how can we embrace the benefits of multi-domain communication whilst avoiding legacy technical debt, and how can we adopt richer user experiences whilst ensuring the message gets through?

In an era where international partnerships are crucial for ensuring security and prosperity, the AUKUS alliance stands out as a collaborative military and defence strategy. Companies and organisations in defence and military sectors play a vital role in strengthening the partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our advanced technology represents a significant step forward in helping businesses meet and exceed the complex requirements of the AUKUS alliance.

Interoperability: Bridging the Past with the Future

The global defence communication system market was around US$46bn in 2023, growing to US$120bn by 2033. Around one third of that is the US who, with the UK and allies, stand on the brink of a new era in defence collaboration, where interoperability with last-generation systems is essential for continuity and cost-effectiveness, while embracing next-gen capabilities becomes imperative for enhanced, collective security.

Interoperability remains a critical concern. The ability for different systems, platforms, and organisations to seamlessly communicate and share digital information – akin to Multi Domain Integration – is vital for effective collaboration in and amongst military forces. However, achieving interoperability poses significant challenges, particularly when integrating next-generation technologies with legacy systems.

Efforts are underway to bridge the gap. In my field, the focus is on enabling compatibility and integration between legacy video teleconferencing systems and next-gen capabilities, allowing for smooth transition and coexistence. What defence organisations really don’t want is another new technology ecosystem to manage, and this is recognised by suppliers focussing on interop and the co-management of old systems with new.

Cost efficiency (and, increasing, the green agenda) is a key consideration in the pursuit of interoperability. By leveraging existing infrastructure and integrating new technologies in a phased approach, defence agencies can minimize disruption and maximize the value of their investments; a 10-year-old SIP end point may be just as capable as a brand-new video codec, so if we can drive improvement gains in the system overall, why replace it? Moreover, interop ensures seamless communication between diverse stakeholders, including military branches, allies, and government agencies, fostering a more cohesive and coordinated approach to defence operations.

Seeing eye to eye (and why richness wins with users)

Real time video offers a different quality of conversation. Nonverbal communication – the subtle cues and expressions that don’t carry over voice – is hugely valuable in human understanding. With mission partners whose first language isn’t your own, this is even more

important. It will soon be possible to have accurate, automatic speech recognition give a real-time translation for foreign languages during a multiparty video call, via secure, on premises language engines (rather than high risk internet-connected databases). Pexip partners with Artificial Intelligence (AI) powerhouse NVIDIA, whose Riva platform promises high accuracy levels and will even lip sync a video participant in real-time. In an Ops room, being able to select any live video stream from a field-worn helmet camera and deliver it into a live conference suddenly affords a new clarity to the traditional range of data sources; imagine having all these sources integrated to the Common Operating Picture and available across domains, instantly and securely exploitable by anyone with a need to know. McChrystal would have seized this capability had it been available at the time.

The defence industrial market shows how aerospace companies are aiming to deliver complex, multiyear programmes with a shift towards flexible, collaborative working environments. CWEs are digital replicas of the traditional co-located professional paradigm where engineers from partnering firms share projects, whiteboards and designs alongside integrated chat, voice, and video applications, creating a collaboration workflow that suits problem solving at scale. The ambition is to deliver this as a service, seamlessly and securely with intellectual property rights controls built in, as with SecureCloud+’s Jupiter. The shared, private cloud model reduces costs and gives more opportunity for collaborative working.

This mirrors the challenge I hear from many defence customers, who are used to the rich features of hyperscale cloud-based unified communications services (such as Microsoft Teams) deployed to support OFFICIAL workloads during the pandemic; “we need that, but at SECRET!” Public cloud-based services don’t support defence’s security requirements, but this shouldn’t stop customers partnering with those suppliers who can support their long-term direction from on-premises, to secure-private to hyperscale cloud.