UK SMEs win AUKUS contracts

Two UK-based SMEs have been awarded contracts as the result of the 2025 AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge, which sought solutions to enable the command and control of autonomous undersea systems.

Announced by the UK Government on 30 May, the contracts were awarded to Decision Analysis Services, a professional services company focused on critical infrastructure, and A-2i, a micro-consultancy.  

The maritime challenge is the second iteration in the AUKUS innovation challenge series, which supports its Pillar II objective of developing advanced military capabilities. The first challenge in the series focused on electronic warfare.  

Innovations submitted to the second challenge were evaluated on their potential to enable: 

• Near real-time communications between undersea vehicles 
• Near real time communications from undersea vehicles to command and control systems  
• Near real time communications between seabed systems to undersea vehicles and command and control systems 
• The allocation of assets to relevant tasks in complex environments 
• The optimisation of bandwidth in a contested/congested environment 

Entrants in the second challenge could target anywhere from one to all of the requirements. 

Support for industry  

Contracts from the maritime challenge were also awarded to UK-based SEA and US-based MSI Transducers, both of which are larger enterprises. All four companies will receive a share of GBP3 million to develop their systems.  

Decision Analysis Services has not responded to DSEI Gateway’s request for comment on the new contract at the time of publication.