Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) is emerging as a central pillar of maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) increasingly shaping cooperation between India and Australia in this space.
Both countries share strategic interests in securing sea lanes of communication and protecting subsea infrastructure, with their partnership reinforced by the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and broader QUAD coordination.
A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute notes that India and Australia must deepen collaboration not only in monitoring but also in detecting and understanding underwater activity, and adds that identifying complementary strengths would optimise outcomes.
Within the QUAD framework, such cooperation gains added significance, as all four members—India, Australia, the United States and Japan—are focused on enhancing maritime domain awareness and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.
Joint naval exercises such as Exercise Malabar reflect this push, bringing together high-end, multilateral drills that strengthen interoperability and underwater detection capabilities.
The report highlights that India’s industrial capacity and operational experience in the Indian Ocean can complement Australia’s niche technological expertise and advanced research ecosystems.
“Together, these strengths can form a foundation for a robust and mutually reinforcing UDA partnership,” it says, pointing to the broader alignment with QUAD objectives.
Capt Nikunj Parashar, Founder and Managing Director of Sagar Defence Engineering, underscored the operational dimension of this cooperation.
“The development of an Autonomous Underwater Vessel (AUV) for enhancing UDA will create a scalable and autonomous persistent network of autonomous underwater surveillance in a contested maritime environment,” he said. “The AUV can provide seabed imaging, obstacle and threat detection and contribute largely towards Mine Countermeasure (MCM) and Anti-Submarine (ASW) operations in the defence domain for harbour and coastal security.”
He added that mission-specific payloads would allow AUVs to support real-time threat classification. “As per the requirements of each mission, the AUV can be integrated with different payloads for real-time threat classification, contributing towards the shared concerns of Indo-Pacific stability, complementary naval operations and capabilities for strong defence and technology collaboration, reflected by joint naval exercises such as Exercise Malabar that enhance ASW capabilities by conducting complex, high-end, multilateral drills among QUAD nations.”
Parashar also highlighted the integration of unmanned systems. “The AUV can be integrated with an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV), creating a larger networked maritime system for more effective UDA. The USV can execute a variety of naval and security missions, such as littoral/ODA patrol, high-speed interdiction, coastal surveillance, local naval defence, constabulary operations, C4ISR, medium-sized unmanned surface vessel, and low-intensity maritime operations (LIMO).
With the surface platform acting as the relay, command hub, and endurance enabler, the AUV conducts underwater patrolling, enabling continuous monitoring that is highly essential in regions such as the Indian Ocean Region. “Both systems combined can develop an ASW and MCM grid, which is highly significant for naval operations, while also reducing human risk from minefields by faster clearance of critical sea lanes,” he explained.
The integration of these platforms is expected to deliver a modular and persistent UDA system capable of real-time ocean intelligence, aligning with QUAD priorities of maintaining a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific.
Both nations are also positioned to leverage defence innovation ecosystems, including India’s Innovations for Defence Excellence initiative and Australia’s defence innovation programmes. This aligns with QUAD’s broader emphasis on technology sharing, capability development and reducing dependence on external actors for critical maritime intelligence.
As underwater threats evolve, the India-Australia partnership—anchored within the QUAD framework—is expected to play an increasingly important role in strengthening both surface and sub-surface security across the Indo-Pacific.
