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South Australian Deputy Premier and Minister for Defence and Space Industries Susan Close has announced a $1.6 million investment by the SA government to enhance the Royal Australian Navy’s undersea surveillance capability.
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The research project, titled, “Enhancing the RAN’s Undersea Surveillance Minimum Viable Capability”, is designed to improve operational performance by increasing the accuracy and range of automatic detection, tracking, and localisation of undersea threats.
The South Australian government has selected Defence software firm Acacia Systems to lead the project funded through the Defence Innovation Partnership’s Activator Fund and run in collaboration with Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG).
South Australian Deputy Premier and Minister for Defence and Space Industries Susan Close said, “The Activator Fund was established to support larger-scale, higher technology readiness level projects which are very closely aligned to Defence’s priorities, and we have seen that in this project led by Acacia.”
Undersea surveillance operates in challenging ocean environments and with an increasing number of advanced undersea vessels in operation, it’s imperative that Australia’s Navy has the best possible systems in place.
The project is also backed by the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, Curtin University, and Defence Science and Technology Group.
“South Australia is home to world-class research and industry capability in undersea warfare technology and the successful consortia are a highly experienced team with a long track record of delivering Defence projects,” the deputy premier added.
The Activator Fund was established in June this year to speed up the translation of innovative defence technology into real-world capability for the Australian Defence Force. The fund enables South Australia to create and participate in larger-scale innovation activities strongly aligned with the most significant challenges facing Defence.
Chief Defence Scientist Professor Tanya Monro AC, from DSTG, expanded on the comments of the South Australian deputy premier, saying, “The undersea surveillance project, led by Acacia, aligns with defence innovation, science, and technology priorities to future-proof the Australian Defence Force in a complex, evolving environment.
“The Defence Innovation Partnership’s Activator Fund demonstrates the harnessing of the national innovation ecosystem to rapidly transition technology developments into operational Defence capabilities,” Professor Monro explained.
The fund enables South Australia to create and participate in larger-scale innovation activities strongly aligned with the most significant challenges facing Defence.
The Defence Strategic Review Undersea highlighted how critical warfare capabilities, including long-range sub-surface intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, is.
Horden Wiltshire, chief executive officer of Acacia Systems, welcomed the news, saying, “Led by Acacia, the program will bring together world-leading researchers from the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, and Curtin University with support from DSTG. It will apply the latest research in the areas of multi-object tracking, reinforcement learning, and large language models to improve the RAN’s persistent undersea surveillance capability.”
The AUKUS agreement also commits the partner nations to pursue technology-sharing in additional undersea capabilities.
Thales Australia is supporting the project via the provision of sonar data sets from their Bluesentry Autonomous Sonar Payload and Saab Australia their Combat Management System (CMS) development facilities at Mawson Lakes.
“Saab Australia is providing in-kind support for the project and access to CMS development facilities with Thales providing sonar data processed through their Bluesentry thin line Towed Array System,” Wiltshire added.
