Supporting the Royal Australian Navy's Strategy for Robotics and Autonomous Systems: Building an Evidence Base

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dortmans, Peter

Contributor:

Black, James

Black, Marigold

Nicholson, Joanne

Rhodes, Carl

Savitz, Scott

Slapakova, Linda

Smith, Victoria M.

Language:

English

Other Title:

Supporting the Royal Australian Navy's Strategy for Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Calif. RAND Corporation 2021

Summary:

The Royal Australian Navy has embarked on an ambitious plan to modernise its maritime capabilities to support Australia's defence strategy. The 2020 Defence Strategic Update calls for Australia to be ready to shape the strategic environment, deter actions against its interests and respond with military force when required. Maritime capabilities feature heavily in the update, including those related to robotics, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (RAS-AI). The Navy recently established the RAS-AI Directorate, giving it the responsibility of developing a maritime RAS-AI strategic roadmap to provide a path for developing and employing RAS-AI out to 2040. In this report, the authors provide an evidence base to inform the Navy's thinking as it develops its RAS-AI Strategy 2040. Analysing a range of information captured through a literature review, environmental scan, interviews and workshops, the authors make observations that should shape the evolution of the strategy. A framework for the strategy, consisting of the future operational context, potential RAS-AI effects and a high-level technology roadmap, is developed and populated, and objectives for RAS-AI and implementation lines of effort are identified and discussed. For the Navy's RAS-AI strategy to succeed, its implementation needs to be planned in a manner that recognises the evolving environment that the service will contend with over the next two decades.