Page 46 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 21

46 BORDER PROTECTION UNMANNED
FEBRUARY – MARCH 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
operator in realtime, rather than simply acting as a remote camera that needs to be monitored.
A separate $3.8 million Innovation Hub award to Thales is progressing integration onto Bluebottle of its thin line towed active and passive sonar subsystems and an autono- mous data processing, recording and reporting system. When completed, this will comprise the Thales Blue Sentry ASW and surveillance system.
The sonar element of Blue Sentry will enable covert com- munication below the surface using long-range low fre- quency underwater communications, Thales says.
Moving from the future to futuristic, Melbourne com- pany Defendtex describes itself as being at the forefront of defence technology and is proving this in its work with bio- mimetics – fundamentally emulating nature.
CEO Travis Reddy says development is continuing on the company’s Sea Hunting Autonomous Reconnaissance Drone (SHARD) – an armed underwater drone that looks like a squid and can be detonated remotely,
The drones move with tentacle-like legs and are intended for ASW or ISR missions protecting harbours, straits and narrows, where sea traffic converges in a small area.
“SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SME ACACIA SYSTEMS (NOW PART OF ULTRA) IS SUPPLYING ADVANCED ALGORITHMS DEPLOYED AS PART OF ITS ONYX PLATFORM.”
SHARDs can operate individually or act as a swarm, de- tecting and attaching themselves to passing vessels. They recharge by attaching themselves to rocks and allowing ocean currents to rotate an internal magnet that charges the drone’s battery.
How all this is being achieved is classified, as is the de- velopment schedule although a SHARD prototype was ex- hibited by DefenceTech at the UK Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition in 2019.
“Border protection is typically an ISR task and our posi- tion is to see and observe is one thing, but to be able to respond is another. We would use SHARD for ISR if it gave us time to respond,” Reddy said.
“We’re not able to have free-floating munitions in the ocean for obvious reasons and a detonation decision re- quires two-way communication, which is obviously a chal-
ABOVE: The Ocius Bluebottle is expanding its networked offering with more trials in 2021.
lenge. However, I’m able to say that the advent of quantum technology has given us new ways to do old things.”
Late last year new underwater hydrophone technology developed by the CSIRO was deployed across the Torres Strait by Maritime Border Command, a multiagency body within the ABF, to combat illegal foreign fishing. Five of the hydrophones, each about 15 centimetres long, were attached to larger un- derwater mooring devices and positioned in strategic locations.
Back to dry land, and a new system that matches inter- national arrivals to Australia against a biometric watch list was introduced by Home Affairs in mid-2020. IT company Unisys said that combining its multi-factor identity man- agement and authentication technology with biometric facial and fingerprint recognition algorithms from digital security firm IDEMIA made the system one of the world’s most accurate for visa and border processing.
The new system is designed for high-volume traffic of more than 100,000 transactions a day. Future plans in- clude identifying forged identities.
Unmanned technology could of course include the ABF’s detector dogs, trained to find drugs, forearms, explosives, cur- rency and tobacco. These provide an effective complementary detection capability alongside 2D x-ray, 3D computed topog- raphy, radiation safety and body scanner technologies.
GO LARGE
Future unmanned surface capability on a much larger scale is exemplified by the 40-metre trimaran USS Sea Hunter, which in early 2019 became the first ship to autonomously navigate a straight-line voyage from San Diego to Pearl Har- bour and back without a crew, a round trip of about 7,300 km.
Officially known as the Medium Displacement Un- manned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV), the Sea Hunter has been used by the US Office of Naval Research for a variety of experimental ASW projects. Subsequent missions with the US Navy’s 1st Surface Development Squadron have in- cluded autonomous operations with a USN carrier group.
Sea Hunter’s artificial intelligence–based controls and navigation system were designed by US defence contractor Leidos, whose Australian arm believes this world-leading technology could have a role to play locally in mine coun- termeasures, surveillance, and maritime patrol.
Leidos is currently seeking US government approval to export the closely-held IP from its parent company and evolve it to meet specific Australian requirements working with Defence Science and Technology Group.
“Under our bilateral agreement, when that approval is re- ceived we’ll be putting that technology onto a nice new DST vessel – probably initially a 12-metre vessel which is capable enough to go over the horizon and back - and begin experimen- tation with exactly the same technology that enabled Sea Hunt- er to go halfway around the world and back,” Bob Humphries, Leidos Australia’s maritime solutions consultant said.
“You can prove the technology on a 12-metre vessel and move it on up to an offshore patrol vessel and all the complex opera- tions associated with that. What’s vital with autonomy is an agreed concept of operations. Otherwise you’ve got a ride-on lawnmower for a small backyard, or you’ve got a push mower to mow four acres.” ■
OCIUS