New Generation of Underwater Drone Carrying Submarines Needed for Australia

Korean KSS-III Submarine (model)

Australia should invest in Underwater Uninhabited Vehicles (UUVs), commission conventionally powered submarines to carry the smaller ones, and submarine tenders to support them. The Australian Government plans to build nuclear powered submarines, with the help of the UK and the USA. That plan replaced one to to build an Attack-class submarine, as a diesel-electric variant of the French nuclear powered Barracuda-class. And the plan before that was to purchase Japanese submarines. All these plans have the problem that they are for submarines tasked to approach the enemy to carry out surveillance and attack. Small, low cost underwater drones will render such tactics a suicide mission. Instead submarines will need to stand off and launch their own surveillance and attack drones.

Larger UUVs (underwater drones) would be similar in concept to the Boeing Airpower Teaming System (Loyal Wingman). This is a pilot-less aircraft design to accompany aircraft with crews. It is being designed and built in partnership between US Boeing and the Australian Government. Boeing has the Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), based on the Echo Voyager. This is 16 m long with a range of 12,100 km. Smaller drones are more like very smart torpedoes and mines, with limited range. Small UUVs will have far smaller warheads than conventional torpedoes and mines, due to the need for more space for batteries or fuel. This necessity could be made a virtue, by providing a "less lethal" option in grey zone conflicts. UUVs could be programmed to disable a ship's propulsion, steering, or sensors, rather than sinking it. This would deny ports and shipping lanes to an enemy, with less risk of negative publicity from causalities, where the target was a warship disguised as a civilian vessel.

Event canvas from NWIW 2020
by Paul Telling

Strategy and tactics for the use of UUVs, could be investigated in a series of hackerthons, with military, government, academic and industry people, modeled on the Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020 (NWIW).

Just as battleships were rendered obsolete after WWII by progress with aircraft at sea, large submarines will become increasingly vulnerable to UUVs. Some battleships were converted to aircraft carriers, and similarly submarines will become UUV carriers. This will allow submarines to remain at greater distances, just as aircraft carriers can launch attacks from over the horizon.

However, converted battleships did not make ideal aircraft carriers. Their heavy guns were obsolete and so removed. They did not have optimal storage for aircraft. Similarly, the design of submarines will need to change, with the priority being UUV storage, not sensors or torpedoes. A good starting point would be a design like the Korean Dosan Ahn Changho-class KSS-III. This is the only conventionally powered submarine with a Vertical Launch System for cruise and ballistic missiles.

Austral Spearhead class
expeditionary fast transport

Australia could enhance the effective range of its submarines by building tender ships, to refuel, rearm, repair and exchange crews. The tenders could be derived on existing Australian designs of high speed warships from Austral, and Incat. The submarine tenders would rendezvous with the submarines near their area of operations, thus saving the long transit time from Australia. They could also launch and recover large UUVs, which cannot be carried on a submarine. A multi-hull tender would be able to launch UUVs from between the hulls, while underway, unobserved.

Deepsea Challenger

However, the key part of UUVs would be in-country manufacturing capability. This could use local flexible manufacturing, such as Core Electronics factory at Newcastle, for assembling the computer controls, and composite construction from Acheron Project Pty Ltd of Sydney (as used for James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger).

Wollies Direct to Boot Worked Better Than Coles but there is Room for Innovation

Woolworths Direct to Boot Bay,
Tom Worthington CC-BY 12 September 2021

My second attempt to order groceries online from Coles failed, so I switched to Woolworths. The online ordering was much the same, but the collection process was much quicker, easier, and more pleasant. I received a text message telling me my order was ready for collection, to click when I departed, and click again when I arrived. As with Coles, I got lost in the car-park trying to find the collection bays. But this was in the open air, not an underground car park so much easier to see my way around, and it felt less oppressive (at the wonderfully named Spitfire Avenue, next to Canberra Airport). 

The bays were clearly marked, and the staff already on hand, so I was out in a couple of minutes (rather than 20 at Coles). They had a hand card with crates which fitted to it, rather than the wobbly trolley  Coles was using. All my order was there and the fresh items excellent quality. There seemed to be more plastic bags, but this may be because I had ordered frozen, and chilled food, with each category in a separate bag.

For me Woolworths wins hands down over Coles, assuming the ordering system keeps working. If not, is there a third alternative in Canberra? 

Perhaps the team at the Canberra Innovation Network, Innovation ACT and ANU TechLauncher could design an independent home shopping system. This might use a just in time picking system: when you told the system you were on your way, the picker would quickly go around the isles in a discount supermarket, picking the items, and be ready just as you pulled up outside. The picking service doesn't need to be owned by, or affiliated with, the supermarket.

My Phone Survived a Trip Through a Washing Machine

In July 2020, I purchased a Unihertz Atom L Rugged Smartphone

Unihretz Atom L Smartphone
case worn by washing machine

. I did not realise how rugged it was until today. My washing machine was making some banging sounds, but I did not think much of it. When I opened the door after 45 minutes, one wash cycle, two rinses and a spin dry, I found my phone in among the clothes. The phone was covered with a black grease and there was a spot warn shiny on the brushed aluminum case. But it was still turned on and working. 

The sound was a bit muffled due to water in the speaker vent, but with that out it worked fine. The grease appears to be part of the rubber coating, which was worn off when the phone became wedged between the rotating drum of the machine and a rubber seal.

Phone in a plastic box, with a fan
and water absorbing sachets to dry out

I rinsed the phone in clean water and have left it in a plastic box with a low voltage fan and water absorbing sachets to dry out. I did not want to risk taking the phone apart, as being a rugged model has a lot of screws and gaskets.

The Wheels Fell Off My Virtual Shopping Trolley in the Pandemic

The Coles error screen. 

It has taken me 18 months to get around to sign up for online grocery shopping. This is to avoid the Russian Roulette of stepping into a store. It is not so much fear of catching COVID-19 (I am fully vaccinated), as the inconvenience, if I have to isolate and be tested. I have been purchasing complex electronic devices online for a decade, but it has proved surprisingly difficult to buy basic groceries online.

Who?

My first thought was IGA, the small local supermarket, only 30 m from my door. Unfortunately, while it is part of a national chain, they don't offer online shopping. I did sign up for the IGA catalog, but they sent me so much spam I cancelled it. Unfortunately Aldi doesn't offer this service either (apart for buying Aldi gadgets). I am surprised no one has offered a third party delivery service, offering to buy items in Aldi then charging a premium but still "less than Coles & Woolworths" for similar items.

When? 

The next option was Coles, as recommended by a friend. It was reasonably easy to sign up and select items to purchase. I liked the option to list goods by unit price (so you get the cheapest apples per Kg first). However, when I went to select a delivery time I was shocked to find the first was not for a week and had to bid for a slot.

The popular times cost more, and like booking airlines seats. This created the anxiety that if I did not take one now, it would be gone. Going for the click and collect in store option was not much use, as the object of the exercise was not to enter a store. So I selected the option to have goods delivered to my car boot. But there are only a limited range of stores with this option. Curiously these were the larger ones. I would have thought any store with click and collect, would be able to do this.

Where?

The address given for pickup at my nearest Coles store was in a middle pedestrian mall. Detailed instructions to navigate to a special bay in the car-park were emailed to me, but only after I placed the order. In the interim I posted a query with the online, who replied they did not know. The instructions when they arrived were clear and detailed. 

How? 

Then there was the no bags dilemma. Coles ordering has an option for no disposable shopping bags. But this said I had to pack my own. If the shopping is being placed directly in the car boot: how is this done without bags? So I posted another query and was told to call. The help line said to pack your own was a "problem" and so I should select the bags option. That makes sense, but then why offer a no bags option (Woolworths doesn't)? 

Where?

Approaching Canberra's city center by car was a strange experience. I had not driven my car for weeks. I was now driving through almost deserted streets, to an almost deserted shopping center. There was a barrier across the street just in front of the entrance (like something used to keep out the Zombie Apocalypse). I went down, down, down into the car park. Then I had to take a ticket (giving 20 minutes free parking). 

I had envisaged waiting for my shopping in an outside carpark in the fresh air and sunshine. Instead it was now in a subbasement, with all my windows rolled up, looking around in fear in case someone approach, like an extra in a dawn of the dead movie. I parked in the designed spot. Then the vehicle nearby pulled out, and re-parked boot to curb. That made sense so I did the same.

There was a phone number on the wall, which I called, and got an answering service. So I left a message. Five minutes later the other car got its groceries, then another, so after ten minutes I called again. This time a person answered and I gave my name, then again, then spelled it. Five minutes later my groceries arrived. I had expected some sort of automated electric golf cart, but it was a person pushing an ordinary shopping trolley.

They asked my name, but could not hear me, as I had the window up, as per the instructions. So they held the bag with my name on it up and I nodded. I pulled the lever to open the boot, they put the shopping in and I was off. This had taken twenty minutes. I appreciate that there are workers doing this job under difficult conditions, but this took longer than if I had gone into the store and picked the items off the shelves myself. 

Goods?

Getting home, I found I had everything ordered and the quality of the fresh produce was excellent. There was one substitute: I had ordered a bag of limes and instead received the same number loose (which I preferred anyway). One item was much more expensive than expected: I thought it was on special but it was not (I probably picked the wrong one by mistake from the very long list of similar items). But there were also two extra jars. Where I had ordered two jars I got four, and only paid for two. So I came out about even overall.

Fluke?

Having managed one successful online shop, I thought I would try next for frozen goods and fresh meat. But my second attempt to order from Coles resulted in an error message. I called the help line, as instructed, but was told it was a technical problem, and I would have to call back the next day after 9am. When I called the next day I was offered text chat help, so I tried that, but it did not fix the problem. Coles has a cute error screen, depicting shopping spilled from a trolley. This was amusing the first time I saw it, but I got tired seeing it over and over again. So I gave up on Coles, and tried Woolworths.

Again

Woolworths was just as easy to sign up for and select goods as Coles. Despite Woolworths charging more for shopping bags than Coles, the same bundle of items from Coles cost less from Wollworths.

This time I did not even consider home delivery, and instead selected to-boot. Like Coles, there was a three day delay before I could collect. The time slots were one hour, rather than Coles' two. Also the deadline for changing my order before collection was a half hour shorter (five and a half hours, instead of Coles' six). This deadline is useful: you can add items to the order for days before collection, and keep your collection time booking. It is a few days to collection time and I will report how it goes then.

What Might Be Better?

The applications from Coles and Woolworths work much as I would expect my teams of computer students to built. There is nothing which standards out as particularly innovative, but these shopping application work much better than, for example, government COVID-129 vaccination booking applications.