Navy explores autonomy and optional crewing

Defence’s response to the Navy’s surface fleet review, published in February, said the RAN would field six Large Optionally Manned Surface Vessels in the 2030s to carry missile launch systems.

Defence’s response to the Royal Australian Navy surface fleet review, Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet, contained a surprise. The response, published in February, said the RAN would field six Large Optionally Manned Surface Vessels, or LOSVs, in the 2030s to carry missile launch systems.

The LOSV will carry a 32-cell Mk41 Vertical Launch System to supplement the firepower of the RAN’s manned warships. Its Aegis Baseline 9 combat system will enable it to carry out anti-ballistic missile operations.

While an autonomous LOSV may seem like a distant dream, the reality is much closer than anybody had anticipated: Australia already has an optionally crewed prototype at sea.

Similar ships are also being developed by the US navy which has its own Large Unmanned Surface Vessel research program under way. The US navy plans to buy its first ship in 2025 and a fleet of three unmanned prototypes self-deployed across the Pacific to Sydney late last year.

The RAN isn’t coming into this field blind. Perth-based Austal Ships and its partner, Perth-based start-up Greenroom Robotics, last month put Australia’s own experimental, optionally crewed ship to sea. And Austal’s US subsidiary, Alabama-based Austal USA, this year launched the first truly autonomous ship for the US Navy’s LUSV program.

Austal Ships is using a retired Armidale-class patrol boat as a proof-of-concept demonstrator for optionally crewed or autonomous operations for the RAN. The trial is also exploring the legal and regulatory requirements for operating an autonomous vessel at sea – Australian standards of seamanship and navigation won’t be compromised to accommodate autonomous ships.

The program is overseen by the RAN’s own innovators, the Warfighting Innovation Navy Branch, and the Defence-funded Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence CRC. The TAS DCRC and Austal came up with the idea of what is now called the Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial (PBAT) program back in 2020 when the RAN published its long-term Robotic and Autonomous Systems – Artificial Intelligence (RAS-AI) 2040 Strategy. The two partners are co-funding the research.

Greenroom Robotics is providing its innovative, software-based Greenroom Advanced Maritime Autonomy system, says founder Harry Hubbert, a former naval officer.

GAMA serves as a sophisticated Autonomous Control System, he said. The company will integrate GAMA to demonstrate remote pilotage and autonomous navigation for large vessels.

The PBAT trial was also driven by the need to develop asymmetric advantage through an autonomous platform, says Austal.

The aim is to demonstrate the employment of an autonomous system on a large platform. This would drastically increase Austal’s and Defence’s understanding of autonomous platforms, the company says.

While PBAT wasn’t established with LOSV in mind, the technologies to be employed on an LOSV-type vessel will be developed on programs such as PBAT which is fundamentally about providing the RAN with insights and lessons for future autonomous projects. The LOSV ship itself will likely be acquired through engagement with the USN program, with the RAN as a fast follower.

In 2020 the US navy awarded LUSV study contracts worth $US42m ($64m) to six US companies, including Austal USA. A year ago the company handed over to the US navy an optionally crewed Expeditionary Fast Transport, USNS Apalachicola, the largest ship in the US fleet with autonomous capability. And in January it launched the OUSV-3 Vanguard, the first unmanned ship designed for the US Navy from the keel up.

At the opposite end of the size spectrum, the Australian Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) next month will facilitate a trial involving 11 Australian manufacturers of small recce drones. Last year’s Request for Information called for details about the capabilities of the drones and the manufacturers’ ability to build them quickly in significant numbers.

The RFI got 250 responses, demonstrating Australia’s depth and capacity in this area. The 11 companies will each provide a prototype drone along with a production plan detailing how they would rapidly deliver their drones at scale.

Defence hasn’t published performance and capability goals, nor said when a winner could enter service.

While Defence has said little about the unmanned threats faced by the ADF and its own responses to them, it is clearly working to meet them.

The questions remain, however: when will those solutions enter service?

And is Defence doing enough?

THE 11 AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES ARE:

● AMSL Aero

● Autonomous Technology

● Bask Aerospace

● Boresight

● Crystalaid Manufacture

● DefendTex Military Products

● Edinburgh Drone Company

● Geodrones Australia

● Ichor Autonomy

● SYPAQ Systems

● V-TOL Aerospace