The government has signed a secretive new pact with Washington and Canberra to dominate the seabed. No fanfare. No Commons statement. Just a quiet announcement buried on a Whitehall website late on a Friday afternoon.
The deal, dubbed the 'AUKUS Pillar 2 Advanced Capabilities' for underwater drones, commits the three nations to share sensitive technology for autonomous submarines that can hunt mines, spy on undersea cables, and potentially launch attacks from the depths.
Whitehall sources tell me this is a direct response to a massive build-up of Russian and Chinese subsea activity. Both Moscow and Beijing have been mapping critical infrastructure: pipelines, internet cables, and energy links. The threat is real. And it's growing.
One insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: 'We've been asleep at the wheel. The seabed is the new frontier. If we don't own it, they will.'
But not everyone in Westminster is cheering. Labour's shadow defence team has been asking pointed questions about cost and oversight. The MOD is notoriously cagey about special access programmes. MPs on the Defence Select Committee have complained they were briefed only after the fact.
'The Americans call the shots. We just follow,' one backbencher grumbled to me over a pint in the Strangers' Bar. 'This is a blank cheque.'
There are also murmurs about industrial strategy. British defence firms want guarantees that our yards will build these drones. But Washington has a habit of keeping the juiciest contracts for its own companies. That friction could blow up later.
For now, the No.10 machine is spinning this as a triumph of global Britain. A sign that the UK is still a tech leader. But in the Lobby, the real story is different. This is a quiet power play. A bid to shape a new domain before the rules are written. And the Treasury will have to find the cash to back it up.
I've seen this before. Years of underinvestment, then a panic, then a splurge. Let's see if the drones actually arrive before the next election.
