NEWS FROM 2024 STS: Navy leadership, academic researchers, and industry representatives prepare for today’s undersea competition

Chris Watkins, Submarine Technology Symposium co-chair and APL’s Sea Control mission area executive, offers his opening remarks to the symposium. Image courtesy of Ed Whitman of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

“Today’s Competition … Tomorrow’s Fight” was the theme of this year’s Submarine Technology Symposium (STS), held 14 – 16 May, which drew a combination of Navy leadership, academic researchers, and industry representatives to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. The 36th annual symposium explored how technology developers are reacting to the evolving state of undersea and seabed warfare. Many speakers cited how, during the next few years and decades, the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — known as AUKUS — will counter the aggressive growth of undersea capabilities among adversaries.

Learn more on Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.