The future of the defence force looks to be integrating its human assets with new robotic assets, coming together in a program to become joint lethal protectors.
The use of advanced technologies in battle are increasing and it is predicted that by the middle of this century, military forces will contain many thousands of robots, and our human commanders and soldiers will l be informed and guided by artificial intelligence1.
Great news for defence assets and Australian manufacturing recently, when two home-grown businesses were awarded contracts for the equipment designs on the Attack Class Submarine program.
The businesses will partner with international companies to deliver and sustain the Medium Capacity Press, High Capacity Press and Large Capacity Milling Machines (LCMM) required for the submarines. The two presses will shape the steel for the bulk head and hull of the assets. The LCMM is a multi-purpose cutting tool that will be used in a number of ways in relation to submarine’s hull1.
News announced mid-December of an incoming Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). Commencing in February 2020, Ms Rachel Noble PSM will become the first woman to lead the ASD, a major intelligence agency in Australia.
The ASD is the government agency responsible for foreign signals intelligence, support to military operations, and cyber and information security. Its purpose is to defend Australia’s national interests from global threats by leveraging technology to inform, protect and disrupt1.
Recently, the news that set fingertips tingly, the silver lining around the orange, smoke-haze cloud that hangs over our head, is that some of our biggest defence assets have been called in to help with the action.The bushfires currently ravaging Australia will come as no surprise to readers. Since September in NSW, and December in Victoria and South Australia, bushfires have claimed lives and homes, razed through our flora and fauna, livestock and lifestyles.
The HMAS Melbourne (III) was decommissioned on Saturday 26th October, berthing at Garden Island, Sydney, for the last time. It was a poignant ceremony, especially for the two-hundred men and women who served aboard the ship.
The ship has over two decades of service to this nation. She was deployed on operations across the globe, including the Middle East eight times, and earning battle honours for her service in East Timor and the Persian Gulf1.The ship’s motto is ‘she gathers strength as she goes’2 which is as fine a motto as you’ll ever hear and, given her capability right to decommissioning, rings perfectly true.
In Gippsland, Victoria, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) got to test one of its newest assets, the Pilatus PC-21, in a race trail with a motorbike ridden by Wayne Gardner.