DECEMBER 2017 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION 61It was about
making Navy
an informed
customer.
LCDR BEN CROWTHERthat respect.
He said this first ever operational
deployment was conducted under an
operational evaluation plan to capture
data and learn all the lessons the
Navy needs when it goes shopping
for unmanned aerial systems under
Project SEA 129 Phase 5.
These will be emplaced first aboard
proposed new Offshore Patrol Vessels
(OPVs) and then major warships such
as the DDGs, Future Frigates and
amphibious assault ships (LHDs).
The key purpose of a UAV is to
transport a sensor or sensors and
provide data back to where it’s needed.
Since the early days of unsteady
low-res video, the pace of platform and
sensor development has been frantic.
“The rate of progression is
astounding. No sooner do I get used to
what’s out there on the market and get
comfortable with the sensors available,
and then a whole new range comes out
or they have miniaturised a manned
aircraft sized radar which can now becarried on a Scheibel S-100 and give
you a range of 100 nautical miles. That
stuff is happening monthly,” LCDR
Ben Crowther said.
“It will almost certainly change the
future of the Fleet Air Arm.”
That’s so much so that NUASU,
initially stood up as the Navy
UAS Development Unit with five
personnel in 2013 and based at HMAS
Albatross at Nowra, NSW is set to be
commissioned as a Navy squadron.
The Navy is a relative latecomer
to modern UAS, although it has had
long engagement with unmanned
systems, starting with the Jindivik
remote-controlled target aircraft back in
October 1950.
Jindivik remained in service
right up to 1998. There was also the
experimental Turana (1971-79) and
Kalkara (1998-2008).
The Australian Army started using
UAVs in 2003 and subsequently flew
ScanEagle for 45,000 hours in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Indeed, LCDR Crowther’s
passion for UAS stems from his 2012
deployment to the Middle East as a
staff officer to the Australian Taskforce
633 deputy commander. That was the
year when seven Australian soldiers
died in Afghanistan.
“It made sense to me that if we
can get the robots to fight or do that
dangerous stuff and save the lives of
our soldiers as a result, then we don’t
need to be sending notification teams
out to our soldiers’ families,” he said.
The US Navy took an early interest
in UAS, signing a deal with Insitu,
now a subsidiary of Boeing, in 2005
and now has extensive experience of
operating ScanEagle from ships.
“In mid-2012 we put up a case to
the Chief of Navy that there should be
a bit more of a deep dive into this,”
LCDR Crowther said.
The Navy UAS Development Unit
was stood up in early 2013 and Navy
took over the Army’s ScanEagle
contract with Insitu Pacific.
“The intent early on was to
establish a basic understanding of UAS
operations, develop orders, instructions
and procedures on how do we do this
stuff safely,” he said.
“It was about making Navy an
informed customer.”
Beyond surveillance, NUASU
envisages a very diverse range
of possible roles for the eventual
capability.
For surface warfare, a UAV can
partake in the actual targeting and