Things aren't looking good for the Mine Warfare Branch, cheers. Navy to decommission HMAS Huon without direct replacement - Australian Defence Magazine
Agree visual evidence is better but need to be prepared for the eventual claims of fake and AI manufactured.Many may not like Sea Shepard but they know how to exploit the media.
On a tour of one of their vessels the comment was " If it was not on video tape it didn't happen!
The ADF/government needs to be much smarter in its response.
We live in a media / visual world.
Such imagery should be apart of your arsenal.
As for being in China's back yard, I agree it can look like we are playing the bully to hedge them in.
On the other hand the maritime backyard is a shared space with many other nations who also have rights.
China seems to have its own set of rules backed up by huge military grow and concerning words of intent.
How this ends I cannot say but as a maritime nation we do have a responsibility to ourselves and other like minded states to defend what we value.
China seems not to value others rights internally or externally.
Its concerning
Regards S
The Romeo aircrewman usually will have a camera to take footage and the helo's should be able to video via their front sensors.There probably isn’t any video of the incident - RAN helos don’t regularly carry equipment to enable videoing of the environment. That would be an unnecessary consumer of space, and would add unnecessary weight and there has been no real need in the past. The best thing available is likely to be CVR audio and possibly radar or video from the ship, if she was near enough to the scene.
Everyone has a smart phone and a lot of cars have a dash cams.There probably isn’t any video of the incident - RAN helos don’t regularly carry equipment to enable videoing of the environment. That would be an unnecessary consumer of space, and would add unnecessary weight and there has been no real need in the past. The best thing available is likely to be CVR audio and possibly radar or video from the ship, if she was near enough to the scene.
There are a host of potential safety and security issues with having an active/transmitting smartphone on a deployment, and on aboard an aircraft in particular. There are a number of reasons why certain types of secured facilities have lockboxes that personnel have to leave their phones in, prior to entering.Everyone has a smart phone and a lot of cars have a dash cams.
These may not be the answer, but basic tech is small, light weight plus very cheap.
Sometimes a agricultural solution to a basic problem is the answer.
Cheers S
PS - now awaiting comedic response for ADF aircraft having dashcams.
I think this wholly depends on how you look at mine warfare as a capability domain.Things aren't looking good for the Mine Warfare Branch, cheers. Navy to decommission HMAS Huon without direct replacement - Australian Defence Magazine
Seems to be more ships decommissioning than commissioning these days. We lose another ANZAC next year, probably the remaining 4 Armidales and I guess we could see the rest of the MCM and perhaps the Hydro fleet withdrawn over the next few years. Technically the Capes are non-commissioned vessels but we will see 6 Arafuras join the fleet. By my estimation we could see the fleet size reduce to less than 25 commissioned vessels by 2030 and a lot of those will be getting pretty long in the tooth. Of the remaining ships we can expect several will be undergoing major re-fits.I think this wholly depends on how you look at mine warfare as a capability domain.
As the traditional form goes, which would be a class of mine hunting vessels, the branch hasn't been looking good for several years now with a third of the Huon-class being already put up for sale six years ago.
In the more forward looking sense the MCM capability of the RAN is in fact moving towards expansion. With the acquisition of ADV Guidance last year and the several UUV and USV programs underway, which she will be used to trial, these efforts represent the future of MCM as a capability within the RAN and reflect the global trend towards more and more usage of unmanned vessels operating from motherships to perform MCM on a much greater scale than what the Huons and their two relatively short ranged ROVs currently provide.
Let’s see how Chalmers doles out his pennies next Tuesday night. If there’s anything left in the Petty Cash tin, we could get the 64GB microSD memory card this financial year then go for the 2-channel front and rear dash cam in Aldi’s Special Buys after 1st July.Everyone has a smart phone and a lot of cars have a dash cams.
These may not be the answer, but basic tech is small, light weight plus very cheap.
Sometimes a agricultural solution to a basic problem is the answer.
Cheers S
PS - now awaiting comedic response for ADF aircraft having dashcams.
It will be interesting to watch this space develop, it seems to be moving rapidly. The Brits have a similar platform to Adv Guidance with RFA Stirling Castle to trial new technologies.I think this wholly depends on how you look at mine warfare as a capability domain.
As the traditional form goes, which would be a class of mine hunting vessels, the branch hasn't been looking good for several years now with a third of the Huon-class being already put up for sale six years ago.
In the more forward looking sense the MCM capability of the RAN is in fact moving towards expansion. With the acquisition of ADV Guidance last year and the several UUV and USV programs underway, which she will be used to trial, these efforts represent the future of MCM as a capability within the RAN and reflect the global trend towards more and more usage of unmanned vessels operating from motherships to perform MCM on a much greater scale than what the Huons and their two relatively short ranged ROVs currently provide.
Drone support vessels need not be expensive or particularly sophisticated. In fact pretty much any ship with a crane and a bit of free deck space could be utilised. To be honest I find myself wondering whether the navy of the future may just be swarms of UUVs and USVs supported by a handful of manned vessels.It will be interesting to watch this space develop, it seems to be moving rapidly. The Brits have a similar platform to Adv Guidance with RFA Stirling Castle to trial new technologies.
The venerable Huons need to operate close to and within a mine field (the current double eagles I understand have a tethered range of about 500m and very localised sensors), however with drones now having substantial autonomous ranges this is no longer necessary.
Ghost Shark, for instance, has a quoted capability of 10 days underwater, a speed of 4kts and an operating depth of 6km. So you could assume a pack of drones like this could patrol a 1000 km2 area from a mothership with relative ease every few days. Half a dozen platforms of this type could provide a near continuous monitoring of all the waters around Australia. That is an order of magnitude increase on what the full fleet of Huons could ever do.
I could see that in contested waters (say clearing a pathway through someone elses EEZ), the mothership could be a Hunter frigate, making use of the multi mission bay, but in less threatened areas (say confirming that a commercial sea lane remains safe for transit), then something like Guidance could be used at much lower cost and greater capacity. It wouldn't suprise me if a future LOCSV could be configured for drone mothership duties as well.
The technology to detect mines at scale and range is I suspect still challenging. Some of the current generation mines are very effective at sitting on the sea bed, hidden for long periods of time. I can't imagine these are easy to spot. Thales however have some interesting experimental drones that use AI with sonar and visual cameras to detect sea bed mines and they seem to be capable. And there are several other equivalent products in development.
I was watching a video where a drone system was used to survey a region where some dummy mines had been positioned in the North Sea, and the drones located them. I could imagine Ghost Shark fitted with a something like this in its modular compartment.
It always suprised me why the Arafuras were considered not suitable as mine hunting platforms. They have a good sized deck and a large crane, not dissimilar to Guidance. I would have thought they could comfortably have launched and recovered even large drones like Ghost Shark.
I'm thinking that maybe the strategy is large numbers of drones (say 10 or 20, rather than 2 or 3 from a mothership) and it is simply a capacity issue. Guidance could hold a lot more drones than Arafura.
My last thought is that the mine countermeasures profession is perhaps a dying art. In the future it becomes more of a UUV expert. Or perhaps they become more focused on designing mines that can defeat drones (counter counter mines).
My guess is that it is to do with the range of threats. An OPV could deploy a mine hunting system but it can’t deploy a sub hunting helicopter and it can’t defend itself from cruise missiles. The range of scenarios where an OPV (or a Huon) could be sent independently to hunt mines is likely to become very limited in the future. A vessel like Guardian, if retained as an ongoing capability, might be envisaged to operate as part of a task force.It always suprised me why the Arafuras were considered not suitable as mine hunting platforms. They have a good sized deck and a large crane, not dissimilar to Guidance. I would have thought they could comfortably have launched and recovered even large drones like Ghost Shark.
The thing is, the Mogami/FFM is in production and a proven and active design. The hiccups could be the language barrier and commonality of weapons systems.I like the FFM but I wonder about the small crew size. There is an obvious appeal to having such a small crew, particularly for a country like Australia, but I am wondering what sort of workload will be required of that crew.
As the article points out a decision will need to be made soon and we are hearing very little in the press about the selection process. The DSR assured us that this process would be simplified and accelerated so maybe the whole process will be held behind closed doors.
Wouldn’t surprise me given that many recent decisions seem to have been made without a lengthy selection process. The Apache, Seahawk and Blackhawk helicopters for example.
The thing is these were all low risk selections. Proven designs and proven production lines. Something like the FFM on the other hand may be seen as risky.