Sentinel , the testbed for Australia's Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial project. (Austal)

Australian shipbuilder Austal has completed the sea acceptance trials phase for the country's Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial (PBAT), the company announced on 23 April.

The milestone, which included an endurance trial, was achieved by the project's testbed – a decommissioned Armidale-class patrol boat now known as Sentinel. The vessel was formerly in service with the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Maitland and retired in 2022.

The PBAT is an Australian government-funded project. Besides Austal Australia, other stakeholders in the project include Fremantle-based engineering company Greenroom Robotics, research centre Trusted Autonomous Systems, and the Royal Australian Navy Warfare Innovation Navy (WIN) Branch.

It seeks to provide a proof-of-concept demonstrator for optionally crewed or autonomous operations.

As part of the trials, Sentinel carried out a series of remote and autonomous navigation events conducted off the Western Australian coastline between March and April, Austal said.

These events were carried out with a software known as Greenroom's Advanced Maritime Autonomy (GAMA) from a Western Australia-based company Greenroom Robotics.

Austral Australia took possession of the decommissioned Maitland

US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said the country needs more blue-collar workers to meet navy shipbuilding needs at yards like Newport News Shipbuilding, shown here. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

To address the shortage of workers needed to build the number of ships needed to meet US Navy (USN) fleet plans, the country should seek to bring in more legal immigrants from foreign shores, according to US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.

While acknowledging the impact of Covid-related issues on USN shipbuilding schedules on 23 April during an event at the Stimson Center, Del Toro said, “The bigger problem is the lack of blue-collar workers.”

Del Toro called on US lawmakers to “increase the amount of legal immigration” and work visas for potential shipbuilding work to come into country, despite the political divisions preventing such bipartisanship.

“We need to open up the spigot on legal immigration and allow blue-collar works to come here,” he said.

He underscored the need for retraining the new workforce for shipyard trades needed to build USN ships.

MdCN is launched from the FREMM frigate Aquitaine on 18 April. (French Navy)

The French Navy has successfully conducted its first simultaneous test launch of the Missile de Croisière Navale (MdCN)naval cruise missile from a frigate and a submarine.

The test-firing was carried out by the service's lead multimission (FREMM) frigate Aquitaine, positioned off the coast of Brittany, and one of its Suffren (Barracuda)-class nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), located off the coast of Biscarrosse, on 18 April, the Ministry of Armed Forces of France confirmed the same day.

During the test the two vessels launched a co-ordinated strike against a ground target located at the DGA's Biscarrosse missile test centre at Landes in southwestern France – with both missiles engaging their target “in perfect synchronisation”, the Ministry of Armed Forces of France said.

In a statement issued the same day the French Navy said the test was carried out in operational conditions to strengthen the operational know-how and combat skills of the service.