The War Zone – We have now gotten our first look at the Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (XL-AUV) operating submerged thanks to the Autonomous Warrior 2024 maritime autonomous capabilities demonstration in Australia. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the first known customer for the highly modular Ghost Shark, which manufacturer Anduril is now pitching elsewhere, including to the U.S. Navy.

Naval News – Australia will plunge billions of dollars into a revamped defence shipbuilding precinct in Western Australia. A government announcement on 16 October said the Henderson precinct would gain infrastructure suitable for building new landing craft and general-purpose frigates, as well as depot-level maintenance for nuclear-powered submarines.

MarineLink – A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine will undergo maintenance in Australia for the first time on Friday, a key step by AUKUS partners to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific, the defense ministers of Australia, Britain and the United States said.

(Thanks to Alain)

The War Zone – Anduril says it has received active interest in integrating more than a dozen new military and commercial payloads onto its Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (XL-AUV). Payload testing and otherwise demonstrating the Ghost Shark’s highly modular design are core focuses of new work on the underwater drone that is now set to occur in the United States.

The War Zone – The Virginia class submarine USS Hawaii is in port in Australia for routine maintenance, with that country’s navy set to help out with that work in a first-of-its-kind team-up. This is a new and important step forward in plans to start rotational deployments of U.S. and British nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. 

Naval News – With its new nuclear-powered submarines years away from fructifying into any sort of capability, Australia is pouring money into extra-large autonomous underwater vehicles (XL-AUV) that will help take up the underwater slack.

USNI News – The Australian government signed a $2.2 billion four-year contract with national submarine builder ASC last week to keep Canberra’s existing Collins-class submarines in service through the 2030s.

Breaking Defense – The Royal Australian Navy admiral in charge of readying military facilities for a key port call by nuclear-powered submarines, including the future SSN AUKUS boat, warned this week that Australia’s generational effort to buy and deploy nuclear powered submarines is “at risk” if the government does not take quick, decisive action on infrastructure.

ABC – Half of Australia’s Collins Class submarine fleet will remain out of the water for the rest of the year with unprecedented corrosion problems discovered on two of the ageing boats.

(Thanks to Alain)

Breaking Defense – Australia is moving forward with its plan to conduct a $4 to $5 billion life extension on its Collins-class submarines, with HMAS Farncomb (SSG-74) first in line, but has scaled back previously planned upgrades, the government announced today.

Naval News – The Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) two-star capability head has made a robust defence of the ‘shrink-wrapped’ procurement strategy being pursued for the accelerated acquisition of 11 new Tier 2 general purpose frigates.

The Australian – The Albanese government has been warned that the $5bn plan to extend the life of the navy’s ageing fleet of Collins-class submarines for another decade is a perilously high-risk endeavour that is not guaranteed to succeed.

(Thanks to Alain)

Defense News – Australia won’t take possession of its first nuclear-powered submarine until 2032, but Australia and the United States are already training the officers and sailors who will operate that Virginia-class attack boat and the civilians who will maintain it.

The War Zone – The Ghost Shark is Australia’s ambitious extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle, but details about its future missions remain scarce.

Defense News – Though the submarine portion of the AUKUS trilateral alliance will take decades to fully come to fruition, development of the advanced technology under the agreement is in full swing, as Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. seek quick wins for their fleets, officials said.

Naval News – At the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra, Defence Minister Richard Marles simultaneously unveiled the first ever “National Defence Strategy 2024” (NDS) plus the “Integrated Investment Program 2024” (IIP). The latter was the first release of the IIP since its last public iteration four years ago. The NDS continues on from last year’s Defence Strategic Review, and gives the raison d’être for Australia’s major boost in defence capability. Meanwhile, the IIP lists in detail what will be procured in the next decade, alongside approximate monetary amounts.

Breaking Defense – In a bright spot for Australian defense procurement, an important domestic defense program, the first Ghost Shark autonomous submarine prototype, has come in early and on budget.

Naval News – Details have been set out for four workstrands being developed, within Pillar 2 of the AUKUS trilateral strategic defence and security partnership, to generate new underwater battlespace capability for the Australian, UK, and US navies. One new capability priority is capacity to launch and recover uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) from submarine torpedo tubes.

Center for Maritime Strategy – Once again, as the current Houthi-attacks on merchant shipping in the confines of the Red Sea show, navies must be able to effectively operate in littoral waters. Late last year two former Royal Australian Navy officers Commander Jen Parker and Vice Admiral Peter Jones wrote an Occasional Paper for the Australian Naval Institute on the RAN’s experience in the littoral and what lessons can be drawn from it. Here is a précis of that paper.

RUSI – Australia’s latest defence review – addressing the renewal of the country’s navy – charts a vision for a larger fleet over the coming decades. But it will take time, and even the best laid plans can go awry.

Naval News – Australia has already received its first batch of smart sea mines which have already been put to use during exercises.

Naval News – The Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) fleet will grow from 11 surface combatants to 26 under plans announced by Minister for Defence.

USNI News – A team of 37 Royal Australian Navy sailors are heading to Guam to learn how to maintain nuclear submarines. The officers and enlisted sailors will embed aboard USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), the U.S. Navy’s mobile submarine maintenance platform located in Guam.

Naval News – A review into Australia’s procurement of the Hunter-class frigate has found serious issues with the procurement process that led to the BAE Systems Type 26 design being selected for the Royal Australian Navy’s future frigates.

Defense News – The U.S. and Australian navies will see their submarine-specific partnerships grow in multiple ways throughout 2024.