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AUKUS announces undersea drone tech for subsea cable protection; Australia to buy only secondhand US submarines under pact, Marles calls seabed a battlefield

Speaking at the 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles warned the seabed has become an active battlefield amid an unprecedented rise in attacks on undersea critical infrastructure, including cable cuts attributed to China and Russia. AUKUS partners the US, UK and Australia unveiled a new underwater drone technology project to protect subsea cables, and confirmed Australia will purchase only three secondhand Virginia-class submarines from the US under the AUKUS pact, scrapping earlier plans for a mix of new and used vessels to reduce costs and simplify logistics, while US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pressed allies to increase defense spending and warned against Chinese hegemony in the Asia-Pacific.