ADF General discussion thread

[Lolcake]

Ukraine pushes to build fighter drones in Australia

Kyiv is aggressively pursuing “drone deals” with partners around the world that involve building and sharing the cutting-edge technology with host countries.

www.afr.com

Drone deal with Ukraine in the works?

 

[crest]

Ukraine pushes to build fighter drones in Australia

Kyiv is aggressively pursuing “drone deals” with partners around the world that involve building and sharing the cutting-edge technology with host countries.

www.afr.com

Drone deal with Ukraine in the works?

i beleve many have already been made

Exclusive: US, Ukraine Reach Breakthrough Agreement On Drone Cooperation

www.globalsecurity.org

.

also with many gulf states
What are Ukraine's new Gulf defence deals? Here is what Zelenskyy signed

 

[MARKMILES77]

Someone just cut/damaged 2 of Australia's 18 undersea internet cables. Indigo West and Indigo Central cables have both been attacked.
The question is by whom? The Government probably knows but is making no comment about the issue at this stage.

Internet cables cut off WA coast as suspicious vessel lurked

Defence experts warn the suspicious severing of two vital undersea cables off the WA coast over the weekend highlights the country’s high vulnerability to being cut off from global internet communication.

thenightly.com.au

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Someone just cut/damaged 2 of Australia's 18 undersea internet cables. Indigo West and Indigo Central cables have both been attacked.
The question is by whom? The Government probably knows but is making no comment about the issue at this stage.

Internet cables cut off WA coast as suspicious vessel lurked

Defence experts warn the suspicious severing of two vital undersea cables off the WA coast over the weekend highlights the country’s high vulnerability to being cut off from global internet communication.

thenightly.com.au

View attachment 55380View attachment 55381View attachment 55382

So the Australian government knows there was an unknown vessel doing suspicious things, but it just could continue with its activities and then after finishing its job, it just could sail away. Weird.

 

[StevoJH]

I used to regularly play an online game where the server was located in Singapore, the cable that the traffic was routed down was damaged quite often.

It was pretty obvious when it happened, because the latency would double until it got fixed.

While that was only recreational use, I imagine that the restriction in data bandwidth and increase in latency would be quite restricting in some professional usage scenario's. Or possibly result in an increase to costs for large enterprise users due to having to purchase bandwidth on other cables?

 

[CJR]

So the Australian government knows there was an unknown vessel doing suspicious things, but it just could continue with its activities and then after finishing its job, it just could sail away. Weird.

There's a significant step from a ship doing something suspicious and knowing the something suspicious was nefarious enough to justify boarding the vessel. Then add in legal and diplomatic complications over the vessel likely being in international waters at the time the cables were sabotaged.

 

[Stampede]

There's a significant step from a ship doing something suspicious and knowing the something suspicious was nefarious enough to justify boarding the vessel. Then add in legal and diplomatic complications over the vessel likely being in international waters at the time the cables were sabotaged.

Yes it’s a challenge

One cable- accident!
Second cable- nefarious?
We don’t know
Or we do know and are challenged as to how to respond and deter.?

I guess we’ll see if this is a growing trend or not in our part of the world.
If so it will be interesting as to how we navigate such activity.

Concerning

Cheers S

 

[spoz]

Those two cables are physically close together near Perth. It’s possible, though maybe not probable, that it was an accident. Examination of the breaks, apparently not yet done, will tell.

 

[SammyC]

Australia, UK sign statement of intent for CEA advanced radar technology


Looks like the Brits are buying into CEAFAR systems, potentially for the army and navy. I'm surprised they would move away from the indigenous BAE Samson radar.

Good outcome for CEA. Interested to see how this progresses.

 

[hauritz]

Australia, UK sign statement of intent for CEA advanced radar technology


Looks like the Brits are buying into CEAFAR systems, potentially for the army and navy. I'm surprised they would move away from the indigenous BAE Samson radar.

Good outcome for CEA. Interested to see how this progresses.

Not just a deal, but potentially a $10 billion deal. If I had to speculate I would say it had something to do with the RN cancelling plans for the Type 82. I wouldn't be surprised if the CEAFAR found itself on later iterations of the Type 31 and Type 26 frigates.

Top-secret military tech puts Australia on verge of record $10 billion deal

www.nine.com.au

 

[OldTex]

Not just a deal, but potentially a $10 billion deal. If I had to speculate I would say it had something to do with the RN cancelling plans for the Type 82. I wouldn't be surprised if the CEAFAR found itself on later iterations of the Type 31 and Type 26 frigates.

Top-secret military tech puts Australia on verge of record $10 billion deal

www.nine.com.au

UKDJ has a couple of articles on this, written more for the UK perspective. One of the articles has this comment:

"What the UK would use the radar for has not been stated. Britain has an acknowledged shortfall in ground-based air defence, with the Army fielding Sky Sabre in small numbers, and the Strategic Defence Review of 2025 committed to strengthening air and missile defence without settling on the sensors that would underpin it".

In the comments section of another of the UKDJ articles there were references to MMPAR and GBMMR systems which would be more focused on land based applications. Time will tell if any of the CEA systems are selected and for what purpose.

 

[SammyC]

UKDJ has a couple of articles on this, written more for the UK perspective. One of the articles has this comment:

"What the UK would use the radar for has not been stated. Britain has an acknowledged shortfall in ground-based air defence, with the Army fielding Sky Sabre in small numbers, and the Strategic Defence Review of 2025 committed to strengthening air and missile defence without settling on the sensors that would underpin it".

In the comments section of another of the UKDJ articles there were references to MMPAR and GBMMR systems which would be more focused on land based applications. Time will tell if any of the CEA systems are selected and for what purpose.

I was thinking the CEAOPS and CEATAC radars would be more their immediate interest, rather than the naval CEAFAR. Notably a CEAOPS package was the backdrop to the media event. Its a hpt production line so also immediately available.

 

[Bob53]

Those two cables are physically close together near Perth. It’s possible, though maybe not probable, that it was an accident. Examination of the breaks, apparently not yet done, will tell.

I suspect this is unlikely unless the damage was very close to shore. From memory they route out to about 60 odd kms into very deep water before distributing north toward Jakarta, south …around to the east coast and north east to Singapore. It’s past the continental shelf and getting into 200m plus and the Perth canyon is out there also. Deliberately routed in deep water for that reason and meant to be protected from mooring with a navigation protection zone.

if it was accidental it would mean a ship was anchoring in deep, unprotected and exposed to the Indian Ocean swell which seems unlikely. As you said it may be accidental if close to shore but if a ship was behaving suspiciously that close to shore surely we have capability to investigate?

 

[spoz]

I don’t disagree that an accident is most unlikely. However, the 40 metre line is about 15 miles off shore at the point the cables cross it, and they don’t head straight for the Sunda Strait - they do a sort of dogleg just off shore to keep them away from what is a frequently used anchorage. But certainly they are quite some distance from the normal shipping channels in and out of Freo/Cockburn. Their position is precisely marked on charts of course, with the intention of preventing any such accident.

 

[Bob53]

I don’t disagree that an accident is most unlikely. However, the 40 metre line is about 15 miles off shore at the point the cables cross it, and they don’t head straight for the Sunda Strait - they do a sort of dogleg just off shore to keep them away from what is a frequently used anchorage. But certainly they are quite some distance from the normal shipping channels in and out of Freo/Cockburn. Their position is precisely marked on charts of course, with the intention of preventing any such accident.

I read today the damage was approx 65km off shore. The ship navigating suspiciously was the Gem Sapphire.

Two critical subsea internet cables, Indigo West and Indigo Central owned by SUBCO, suffered shunt faults approximately 65 kilometres off the Western Australian coast near Perth around August 8–9, 2026. The damage occurred in a designated protection zone while a suspicious commercial vessel tracked via maritime data lingered overhead. Repairs are estimated for August 26, 2026.

The oil products tanker Gem Sapphire was linked by maritime tracking data to the vicinity of an undersea disturbance off the West Australian coast where the Indigo West and Indigo Central internet cables suffered simultaneous faults. The ship is owned by UAE-based Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM) Shipping and was operating under BP Shippingaccording to AIS data.

 

[spoz]

The apparent deliberate damage to cables etc in the seas around Europe has been attributed to so called “dark fleet”ships; those operated by Russia, North Korea and Iran principally that run around with effectively no insurance and no proper enforcement of standards. A GEM ship being operated for BP certainly does not fit that profile! However there is no doubt the AIS track is more than a little suspicious. Wonder what is actually going on here. Would be interesting to know the nationality of her master and officers ATM. It’s not as if she is a stranger to Australian waters.