Two companies backed by UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), SEA Ltd and DAS Ltd, showcased maritime technologies at Maritime Big Play in San Diego, California, an AUKUS exercise held the month before the government's 3 November 2026 announcement.

SEA, based in Frome, presented its Acoustic Deployment Environment Planning Tool, which combines environmental data with acoustic modelling to help operators predict and optimise underwater communications performance. The company said the tool builds on anti-submarine warfare modelling work that has supported the Royal Navy for more than two decades. DAS, headquartered in Basingstoke, demonstrated its Autonomous Fleet Task Assignment Framework, software designed to coordinate fleets of autonomous underwater vehicles with less reliance on command-and-control orchestration, including in degraded or denied communications environments.

According to the announcement, the exercise brought together innovators from the UK, United States and Australia and highlighted AUKUS Pillar II collaboration on maritime security. Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the Prime Minister's Special Representative on AUKUS, attended. UKDI said the event showed its investment moving UK technologies from development toward demonstration with allied partners.