Melbourne-made Midget Sub Gets Wave Reviews
The Sunday Age
Sunday December 26, 1999
The quiet industry of a Melbourne workshop could hold one key to a future role for the much-maligned Collins Class submarine.
The navy is considering equipping its Collins Class subs with fast "swimmer delivery vehicles" - effectively midget submarines which could be used by special forces units.
It is looking at a range of options to improve the ability of the submarine fleet to carry out long-range operations well into the next century. The answer may be the High Speed Stealth Swimmer Delivery Vehicle - a sleek, black, jet-powered craft of lightweight carbon fibre developed by Frankston aeronautical engineer Michael Porter.
The stealth swimmer is a 7.1-metre-long vehicle designed to carry up to four divers and their equipment at high speeds across the sea surface and at up to 10 knots submerged.
A senior naval officer said the navy wanted to make it easier for special forces troops or navy divers on mine-clearing operations to get in and out of submarines with their equipment.
At present, submarines were fitted with a diver lockout chamber, but that limited the amount of gear troops could carry and the speed with which they could be deployed. If bulky gear was involved, the submarine had to surface and lower craft, such as inflatables, into the water. Then it risked being spotted or picked up on radar.
``We need to be able to deliver whatever special forces need when they go ashore," the officer said. ``They may go for surveillance so they'll need surveillance equipment, they may go to blow things up or to rendezvous with special agents or to recover equipment or even a VIP."
The submarines could also be used in peacetime operations against, for instance, a target at sea such as an oil rig captured by terrorists.
The options being considered by the navy range from simply making submarine exit chambers bigger to equipping them with specialised underwater craft or developing an unmanned remote control vehicle.
If the navy decides to take on board a swimmer delivery vehicle, an option would be to house the craft on the back of a submarine in a streamlined pod.
When the navy study is complete it will go to the defence capabilities committee with a broad range of options and costs to be balanced against the capability provided by each option. Nothing has been approved yet.
The pressure has been on to produce such a vehicle since the first Gulf war, when Allied force commanders found themselves with limited ability to check the coastline for minefields when they wanted to land troops.
The US Navy already uses a similar but less sophisticated craft on some of its nuclear submarines.
Mr Porter, who trained at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, has spent five years designing his craft with the help of a $300,000 grant from the navy.
The Defence Science and Technology Organisation carried out tests on the vehicle in response to the navy's request for advice on its hydrodynamic performance and propulsion requirements and described the results as outstanding.
The vehicle is a ``wet" submarine - those aboard are exposed to the ocean - which can travel 12 metres down while keeping four men supplied with air and warm water to their wetsuits.
It can operate in several modes. It is fastest on the surface at more than 20 knots. Submerged in ``semi-clandestine mode" it uses two electric thrusters and its turbo-charged diesel engine to give a speed of 7-10 knots.
In the most dangerous stages of an operation it can travel submerged at five knots in ``fully clandestine mode", using only its battery-powered electric thrusters which generate little noise. The company has developed a classified ``super clandestine" mode, which produces no propulsion noise at all, and which it believes is unique.
Mr Porter's company, Alpha Research and Development (Australia), has tendered to provide the navy with nine of these craft as well as a demonstration prototype which is expected to cost about $2 million.
Work on the prototype was to begin this year but was delayed by the high cost of rectifying problems with the Collins submarines.
The company has already built a two-seat experimental prototype.
Mr Porter said the whole project was fully planned and the company was ready to proceed. It had computerised data ready to produce the sophisticated moldings needed to create the hull shapes. Naval officers who have examined the craft believe it will be sought after by navies around the world.
Collins defenders fight back: News 11
© 1999 The Sunday Age