Ship to help detect underwater hostile activity given go-ahead

Defence has been given the green light to purchase a new $155m ship to help establish a new network of undersea sensors to detect foreign submarines and autonomous underwater vehicles.

Defense Minister Richard Marles. Picture: AFP

Defence has been given the green light to purchase a new $155m ship to help establish a new network of undersea sensors off the nation’s coast to detect foreign submarines and autonomous underwater vehicles.

The funding for the vessel was quietly listed in Tuesday’s budget – the ship’s first official mention by the government.

According to the budget papers, the project “seeks to deliver a navy capability to support trials and integration of undersea warfare and surveillance systems”.

The vessel will “host a variety of small teams” working with “uncrewed remote and autonomous systems”.

Defence confirmed the ship had not yet been selected but the funding is allocated for this financial year, suggesting it will be purchased overseas as an “off the shelf” vessel rather than being built in Australia.

The acquisition follows Defence’s 2020 Force Structure Plan, which flagged investment in an integrated undersea surveillance system to protect the nation’s coastline from underwater attack.

According to a recent notice to potential tenderers, the system will use “fixed, mobile, and deployable acoustic arrays designed to detect diesel and nuclear powered submarines operating in Australia’s maritime approaches, and to provide tactical cueing to ADF and allied anti-submarine warfare forces”.

An undersea signature range has also been foreshadowed to support submarine warfare training. The US has relied on undersea surveillance systems since the Cold War for detecting Russian and now Chinese submarines.

Its sensor network is the US navy’s primary means of submarine detection, and remains one of its most closely guarded secrets.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Marcus Hellyer said Australia’s planned system would be designed to detect submarines operated by potential adversaries, and test the nation’s own underwater capabilities.

“They are looking at potentially having fixed undersea arrays, so you would put them off your key ports, for example, or at key choke points on our approaches,” Dr Hellyer said.

“You also want to be able to work out how noisy your submarine is, or be able to do test firing of torpedoes.”

In another development, the government announced on Thursday that Australia would “never” conduct destructive anti-satellite missile testing.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Science Minister Ed Husic said the use of such missiles was “reckless”, creating large amounts of debris that remain in space for years, threatening satellites and other space objects.

“Australia joins the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Germany and the Republic of Korea in making this commitment toward a safer, more stable and peaceful space domain,” they said.

The budget revealed Defence spending is forecast to remain under the 2 per cent of GDP benchmark this financial year ­despite worsening strategic circumstances.