Page 29 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

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DEFENCE BUSINESS AUTONOMOUS WARRIOR 22 29
reasons we included in AW22 a well-attended regulatory workshop for Defence, regulators, and industry.”
Project Sea 5012 – integrated underseas surveillance (IUSS) – was a mammoth task which clearly had potential for AI with algorithms and thus was also a Campaign Plan focus, CDRE Kavanagh said.
According to an RFI issued in July 2021, the IUSS will comprise fixed, mobile, and deployable acoustic arrays de- signed to detect diesel and nuclear-powered submarines op- erating in Australia’s maritime approaches, and to provide tactical cueing to ADF and allied ASW forces. Anticipated cost is more than $7 billion.
The uncrewed surface, subsurface and aerial systems in- volved in AW22 were specifically selected to provide the ca- pabilities required to populate 14 operational vignettes un- dertaken in the course of the exercise. These ranged from breakout and over-the-horizon MCM; MCM in support to amphibious operations; optical mine classification; beach surveys with acoustic sensors and laser scanning; and mari- time ISR using unmanned air and surface vehicles.
TECHNOLOGY ON DISPLAY
These exercise assets included Defence’s latest and defi- nitely its fastest surface vessel capability, the 38 ft cata- maran-hulled optionally-crewed Devil Ray T38, powered by twin 300 hp diesel outboards and featuring a burst speed of more than 80 knots.
Developed and manufactured by Florida-based Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC), the T38 has a payload capa- bility of 2,041 kg, a range of more than 500 nautical miles
at a cruise speed of 25 knots, and can be fitted with a wide range of sensors as well as being able to remotely launch and recover onboard USVs and Uncrewed Underwater Ve- hicles (UUVs) from a stern ramp.
Along with the T38 the RAN also procured a MANTAS T12, an electrically-powered clone of the T38 and although only 12 ft long, capable of carrying the same range of sensors, and able to ‘nest’ on the larger craft’s ramp. The man-portable T12 provides 30 hours station-keeping time, payloads of up to 64 kg and a range of 64 nautical miles, remaining operational in conditions exceeding Sea State 4.
Both the T38 and T12 were procured by Defence as tech- nology demonstration platforms to support further develop- ment of operating concepts and future capability require- ments for the ADF.
“The T38 has endurance so it can get you somewhere fast and then you might use the T12 for a stealth-type mission. It’s really about us exploring the opportunities that these things present to us,” CDRE Kavanaugh said. During AW22 the RAN T12 cooperated with a RNZN T12 on a range of missions.
Five T12s are in service with the Royal Navy and a num- ber of the T38s and T12s equip the US Navy’s Bahrain- based Task Force 59. TF59 was established in September 2021 to rapidly integrate uncrewed systems and artificial
ABOVE: A Bluebottle uncrewed surface vehicle from Ocius Technology operates in the waters of Jervis Bay during Exercise Autonomous Warrior 22 at HMAS Creswell
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