The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) and its international arm, ONR Global, have participated in the recent Autonomous Warrior 2023 (AW23) exercise in Australia.

AW23 brought together Australian military allies, as well as industry and international partners, to demonstrate various technologies designed to help the Royal Australian Navy strengthen its capabilities in the area of undersea warfare—including uncrewed (also called unmanned) and autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and logistics, to name a few.

In addition, AW23 represented just one way in which ONR and ONR Global are supporting AUKUS, which is a trilateral security partnership involving the U.S., U.K. and Australia, focused on the Indo-Pacific region.

During AW23, ONR and the U.S. Marine Corps engaged in a collaborative approach to facilitate rapid autonomous logistics delivery. This involved the ONR-sponsored Expeditionary Fabrication Laboratory (XFAB), which provides additive manufacturing to enable warfighters to fabricate and produce repair parts and other customized solutions. Marines can use software programs and 3D printers, among other tools, to address supply chain issues that might arise during a mission.

Encased in a type of shipping container called a conex box, the XFAB is equipped with multiple 3D printers, scanners, laser cutters and other support tools to shrink a unit’s logistical footprint by eliminating the need to transport large amounts of spare parts. During AW23, Marines printed components such as medical tools, latches and hinges, propellers, impellers and antennae.

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