- Author
- Editorial Staff
- Subjects
- Ship design and development
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2023 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
This article first appeared in Australian Warship Issue No 117 published in March 2023 and is reproduced by kind permission of its editor. With so much attention being paid to large nuclear-powered submarines this much smaller but nonetheless important development in submarine technology has gone almost unnoticed.
‘Ghost Shark’ is the name formally allotted to the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) new autonomous robotic undersea warfare vehicle now being locally designed and manufactured. On 12 December 2022 a ceremony was held at the Sydney Harbour headquarters of ANDURIL Australia, announcing the collaboration with Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) on the project, a partnership made possible by the Next Generation Technologies Fund.1
The December 2022 ceremony featured the arrival of the US-made 2.8-tonne, 5.8m-long Dive-LD autonomous submarine which will serve as the testbed vehicle for the purpose of experimentation and testing to support the development of the three larger Australian-manufactured Ghost Shark XL-AUVs. The three prototype XL-AUVs will be delivered to the RAN over three years, with the lead manufacture-ready vehicle to be handed over at the end of 2025.
Defence scientists, RAN personnel and ANDURIL robotic specialists are now working together under this co-funded arrangement to build and deliver three prototypes of the Extra-large Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (XL-AUV), formerly referred to as the Orca.
The Sydney ceremony featured the US-made ‘Dive-LD’ autonomous submarine, to be used as the testbed vehicle for the development of the new RAN vessels. In a statement, the company said ‘This prototype can autonomously conduct missions for up to ten-days along the seafloor at up to 6000-metres deep.’
Presumably, the larger follow-on versions of the design will be much more capable.
Multi-role
Head of Navy Capability Rear Admiral Peter Quinn said at the ceremony that these new stealthy, multi-role vessels, typically measuring between 10 and 30 metres long, represented a new undersea warfare capability for Navy. Joining the various other autonomous systems, as Navy invested in these smart AI-enabled technologies, Ghost Shark would become a game-changer for a variety of future operations.
‘They have the capacity to remain at sea undetected for very long periods, carry various military payloads and cover very long distances’ Rear Admiral Quinn said. ‘The vessels will provide militaries with a persistent option for the delivery of underwater effects in high-risk environments, complementing our existing crewed ships and submarines, as well as other future uncrewed surface vessels’ he said.
‘With their range, stealth and persistence Ghost Shark will be able to operate throughout the Indo-Pacific regions. Due to its modular and multi-role nature, our adversaries will need to assume that their every move in the maritime domain is subject to our surveillance and that every drone is capable of deploying a wide range of effects – including lethal ones’ Quinn told the small audience of government officials, officers and defence journalists.
‘Once your potential adversaries understand what a Ghost Shark is – not that we’re going to give them any specifics at all – we expect they will generate doubt and uncertainty.’
First steps
The Ghost Shark Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle project will allow the RAN to explore capability enhancement. The concepts developed as part of the project will determine decisions about future acquisitions, and adaptations to existing operating concepts. ANDURIL will complete its testing on the submarines over the coming three years at its Sydney Harbour base, with continued support from Defence.
The ceremony included the unveiling of the 2.8-tonne ‘Dive-LD’ autonomous underwater vehicle to be leveraged for rapid testing and development. The 5.8-metre-long Dive-LD arrived ahead of schedule in a major step forward in the $140M partnership between the RAN, DSTG and ANDURIL Australia to design, develop and manufacture the first batch of three Ghost Shark XL-AUVs in Australia.
The Ghost Shark’s modular design will be customisable and optimised with a variety of payloads to undertake a wide variety of maritime missions. The Dive-LD will be used by ANDURIL Australia’s engineers as the testbed vehicle for experimentation, testing and validation as it develops the school-bus size XL version. This ambitious three-year Ghost Shark development program will also involve capability assessment and prototyping, all expected in record time.
Capabilities
Like the 3D printed exterior Dive-LD, the Ghost Shark XL-AUV will be capable of a wide range of deployment options and its software-driven autonomous systems will become a force multiplier for the Australian Defence Force.
The recently released RAS-AI Campaign Plan2 included the rapid development of combat-ready prototypes to accelerate operational deployment of game changing capabilities such as Ghost Shark. Accordingly, each of the three prototypes will be a gradual development of the design, employing agile engineering approaches to ensure that the company is not just building three of the same vehicles.
One of the key differences from a traditional crewed submarine is that most of this weapon can be flooded, with sensors and weapons encased in pressure sanctuaries, instead of the entire hull being primarily designed to protect the crew inside.
Future
The subsea domain of today and into the future is considered extremely complex and will feature this new frontier for the exploitation of new autonomous technologies. With such advances forming a major part of this new program, the XL-AUV now being developed will perform more of the dull, dirty and dangerous missions rather than the crewed Collins class submarines, freeing the larger boats to undertake the more complex missions. Although there is still much progress to be achieved before the Concepts of Operation and missions for the Ghost Shark are clearly defined and ready for deployment, progress to date appears to have been quite rapid.
Notes:
1 Collaboration between the Royal Australian Navy, Defence Science & Technology Group and ANDURIL is believed to be based on funding of AU $140M with the Federal Government ‘Next Generation Technologies Fund’ with the cost shared equally between the ‘Fund’ and ANDURIL. The first prototype is expected to enter the water by the end of 2025.
2 RAS-AI Campaign Plan – a plan for action to develop warfare innovation; led by Navy and DSTG.
By Editor:
For comparison purposes the following description of the Israeli Aerospace Industries BlueWhale, which is now in production, might prove useful. BlueWhale is an autonomous submarine system, labelled as ELI-3325. Designed for operations in various maritime environments, this submarine can function without human operators on board.
Recently, BlueWhale participated in a NATO anti-submarine exercise where it was tasked with several operations. These activities covered submarine detection, acoustic intelligence collection, and the identification of both maritime and coastal targets. It was noteworthy that this was the first time an autonomous submarine took part in such an exercise.
In terms of specifications, the BlueWhale has a length of 10.9 metres and a diameter of 1.12 metres. It weighs approximately 5.5 tons. Depending on the nature of its mission and battery status, it can operate for up to 30 days. Its submerged operational speed ranges from 2-3 knots, with a maximum speed of 7 knots. The submarine is equipped with various sensors, including RADAR, EO/IR, SIGINT, and sonars.
It also incorporates magnetic sensors and SATCOM for communication, facilitating the transmission of data to its command and control centre through a satellite channel. BlueWhale is capable of performing several functions. It can detect submarines using its Towed Array Sonar (TAS), gather acoustic intelligence, detect mines, and carry out operations related to Littoral ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance). It can also serve as a forward scout for submarines and aid Special Forces in specific tasks.