Page 88 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

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AOR Arafura Class OPV DDG HMAS Choules
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The battery-powered 43 kg Seafox is able to automatically relocate previously- acquired positions of underwater objects with its integrated homing sonar. These ob- jects can then be identified via the onboard CCTV camera and, if necessary, destroyed with a built-in, 1.4 kg shaped charge pro- ducing a kinetic effect sufficient to destroy all known mines.
Some 44 Seafox’s are thought to have been acquired under Sea 1778. Cost is not known, but these are likely to include a number of the reusable training and iden- tification Seafox variant.
As explained by Thales’ Stephen, the company’s Sea 1778 contract involves the individual delivery to Defence of each sub- system, together with a level of integration.
PROGRAM DELIVERY
“As of March, the Sea 1778 project was tracking to achieve IOC by mid-year and FOC late this year or early in 2023 on schedule, and the focus was on complet- ing training for MWT 16 for all systems across the full range of deployment, re- covery and data analysis,” Stephen said.
When operational, Sea 1778 will pro- vide an initial interim MCM effect for a single task group, deployable from the two Canberra-class Landing Helicopter Docks (LHDs) and the Bay-class Landing Ship Dock HMAS Choules.
According to Defence, other elements of the Sea 1778 capability could be em- barked in other host ships within a task
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group, including the Arafura-class off- shore patrol vessels.
“We’ve already done some initial trials get- ting the Stebers and out of the LHDs with further trials incorporating the AMASS sweep later in the year. The concept is the capability would be stored aboard an LHD and as the task group embarked on its mis- sion the system would then be deployed out of the LHD,” Stephen said.
SEA 1905
As FOC approaches, attention is now turning to Sea 1905 and an MCM capa- bility requirement that is expected to fo- cus on robotics and autonomy but has yet to be released.
One confirmed contender will be Thales with its fully-integrated Franco- British Maritime Mine Countermeasures (MMCM) mine warfare system.
Under development for more than a de- cade, production contracts have now been