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Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has hinted at unknown defensive autonomous systems currently in development with the Australian Defence Force.
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The Minister for Defence mentioned that offensive and defensive autonomous systems are being created following rapid increase in similar technology around the world, after being drawn on the subject during an ABC television interview on 21 February.
The exchange followed the recent announcement on 20 February of the federal government’s response to the independent review into the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet. Under the recommendations, the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet is expected to more than double in size to 26 major surface combatants.
“We’re doing a whole lot of other work that I’m not going to talk about publicly in relation to autonomous systems that we might bring to bear and in defending ourselves against those (drone) autonomous systems,” he said.
“Today’s (20 February) announcement is about making sure that we have the most lethal surface fleet that we can have and the most defendable surface fleet that we can have, and that includes defending that surface fleet from threats, asymmetric threats such as drones.”
Newly announced acquisitions from the surface fleet review include three Hobart Class air warfare destroyers with upgraded air defence and strike capabilities, six Hunter Class frigates with undersea warfare and strike capabilities, 11 general purpose frigates, six new large optionally crewed surface vessels, and 25 minor war vessels consisting of six Arafura Class offshore patrol vessels, eight Evolved Cape Class patrol boats, and 11 ECCPBs for the Australian Border Force.
The Navy will retain the six remaining Anzac Class frigates with the two oldest ships to be decommissioned as per their planned service life.
“Drone warfare can happen in a range of different circumstances. Having our most significant frigate, in terms of the Hunter Class frigate, being as stealthy as possible, as quiet as possible, cutting-edge technology in respect of that will be really important in terms of meeting a range of threats, large autonomous threats,” Minister Marles said on 21 February.
“We have announced that part of the makeup of the 26 surface combatants will be large optionally crewed surface vessels. They will give us enormous increases in vertical launch capacity.
“We will seek to crew them, albeit that they are a technology that can operate without a crew. But importantly, they will bolster, augment, complement the vertical launch capacity that we have with both our Air Warfare Destroyers and our Hunter Class frigates. All of that is capacity that we’re putting in place to meet the threats of the future, including autonomous vehicles.
“The lesson that we take from (the drone warfare in Ukraine) is that … you need cutting-edge technology. And that means that the ships that you put to sea have to have the best array of sensors, have to have the greatest visibility, have to have the lowest noise profile, so that they are harder to detect, and have to have the best defences available on them.
“Now, that is what we are talking about in terms of putting in place the modern surface. The Hunter Class frigates will be the best anti-submarine warfare technology. What we will do with the general purpose frigate is make sure that that is at the cutting edge as well. But the most important thing we can do is get to those general purpose frigates as quickly as possible, which is why we have announced a rapid transition from the existing Anzac Class frigates to the general purpose frigates.”
