Summary of address by Rear admiral Proctor, Chief of the Royal New Zealand Navy: “It is an exciting time for any Navy when you contemplate the acquisition of new ships. As a Navy, we defend the sovereignty and territory of New Zealand and our lines of communication, but demands for our capabilities are changing. We face a growing need to be more resilient across our large maritime nation. We face complex challenges and competing demands across our territory, our Exclusive Economic Zone and our expansive oceanic neighbourhood, from the equator to the South Pole.
For us, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean is a priority. The Defence Force supports other agencies to monitor and respond to activities in an area that is beautiful and pristine. But it is also remote and one of the harshest maritime environments on the planet.
Today, our project team will present to you our Government’s intention for a Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel, a Polar Code compliant, ice-capable ship. By the late-2020s, it will be providing a dedicated patrol capability for Government agencies in the Southern Ocean. Built to commercial standards, it will be safer and allow us to stay in the region for longer.”
The New Zealand Defence Capability Plan which was released in June of this year sets out the planned investments in the New Zealand Defence Force out to 2030. This provides an indication of the Government’s intentions and describes specific investments for major capabilities in the air, maritime, land and information domains. An ice-strengthened Offshore Patrol Vessel or OPV for Southern Ocean operations is identified as an area for investment in the Defence Capability Plan. An Integrated Project Team has now been established and work to inform the Business Case has commenced.
Experience tells us that any new vessel for Southern Ocean operations requires distinctly different characteristics to the Royal New Zealand Navy’s OTAGO Class OPVs. In addition to being able to perform the tasking of the current OPV, it must be designed for operations in the sea conditions and environment typical of the Southern Ocean and the sea ice present in Antarctic waters.
The project will need to deliver a ship that is compliant with the Polar Code and that enables the New Zealand Defence Force to better support whole-of-government efforts to monitor and safely respond to activity in the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea. To help illustrate the scale of the challenge we face, the picture on the right of the screen shows New Zealand’s Search and Rescue region (that’s the area inside the red border). From this you can start to get a flavour of the distances that will be travelled to the area of operations, particularly as we focus our presentation today towards the pointy end at the bottom of the screen.
The timing, description and costs included in the Defence Capability Plan are subject to approval by cabinet in response to a business case justifying the investment.
As you can observe from the timeline – the project is at the start of our journey and in the early stages of what we call Capability Definition.
Currently the project is in the process of finalising the requirements for the capability and work has commenced on drafting the Indicative Business Case. We are planning on the Indicative Business Case being provided to government in mid-2020 and this will be followed by the Detailed Business Case in 2021.
The timeline shown is based on a typical design and build process for the delivery of the capability. This has us going to market to procure a vessel in 2022, commencement of the build phase in early 2023, and anticipates delivery of the capability in 2026/27.
- BECA APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES LTD AND VARD MARINE INC SELECTED TO SUPPORT THE NEW ZEALAND MINISTRY OF DEFENCE SOUTHERN OCEAN PATROL VESSEL PROJECT
- Beca selected to support Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel Project
- Options for SOPV for the RNZN
- Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel
- Why Southern Ocean's monster waves will get even bigger
- SOPV
When considering the timeline it is worth noting that we are still to develop our long list of options for the capability. This will need to consider alternative models that may alter the timing such as, but not limited to, the purchase and conversion of a suitable second hand vessel OR leveraging a partner build programme to list a couple of examples.
The challenges of operating in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean today are the same as those faced by the explorers of the heroic age.
The Southern Ocean is known for extreme waves and the Ross Sea, sea ice is variable in thickness and highly mobile.
For this project to design and build a ship which is not only safe but also able to effectively complete required operations, a deep understanding of Southern Ocean waves and Ross Sea. sea ice is required.
Since 2011 the Royal New Zealand Navy routinely has operated south of 60S, for each deployment the ships command teams have reported extreme sea states that are poorly forecast.
These videos were taken from OTAGO class offshore patrol vessels operating in the Ross Sea. The camera is 18m above sea level.
The ships were operating in areas of open water surrounded by sea ice. In the Northern Hemisphere such open water which is associated with low sea states.
In the Southern Hemisphere however ships operating in the Ross Sea, are exposed to the large waves of the Southern Ocean moving south in to areas with sea ice.
We know from our own measurements in the summer months that the average wave height in the Ross Sea is sea state 5 in the presence of ice, with periods of time with wave heights greater than 10m or sea state 8.
The sea ice of the Ross Sea is highly mobile, variable in thickness with dense older inclusions.
These sea ice properties coupled with high sea states differs greatly from the conditions experienced in the Northern Hemisphere and will require the ice strengthen of the new ship to specially designed to ensure protection of the hull.
So what do we know about the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea wave climate?
While the Southern Ocean makes up 22 % of the planet little is known about the waves of the area.
The industry standard database for wave heights for design is the GLOBAL WAVE STATISTIC – BMT Limited 1986. This database is based on observations from ships and is regarded as the best data available for design.
However, the blue boxes show the Global wave statistics sea areas, the red box is where we want to operate.
To fill this knowledge gap, the Defence Technology Agency, MetOcean Solutions and the Royal New Zealand Navy deployed a wave buoy 11 nautical miles south Campbell Island in February 2017.
This is the only moored directional wave buoy deployed in the open ocean south of 47 S globally. In an additional 23 free floating buoys have also been deployed over the past 3 season between 42 and 67 S. This New Zealand Defence Force-led project is the largest Southern Ocean wave observing program to implement to date.
In the past 3 years we have measured many big waves, the largest being 23m tall, the same height as a 7 storey building and only 2m less than the biggest wave measured globally.
Our first priority with this research has been to improve the safety of our sailors at sea by improving our ability to forecast extreme waves. Wave forecast models for all other ocean basins have a specific setup, these have been developed by validation against wave observations.
For the Southern Ocean the global wave model WaveWatch III is usually set up using the defaults from the North Atlantic as no optimization has ever occurred for the Southern Ocean.
Clearly from the experience of our people this way of setting up the model is not providing good forecasts. To improve Southern Ocean wave forecasts, the United States Office of Naval Research provided a 3 year grant to enable the setup of WaveWatch III to be optimized for the Southern Ocean.
The biggest improvements from the default setup of the model was due to changing how wave energy dissipates and adding ocean current to the model. On average the new setup was between 5-20% closer to the altimeter and buoy observations than the old setup.
In the map shown, red is where there has been an improvement and blue is where the accuracy has decreased with the new setup.
To design a ship we need to understand the wave conditions for a period of time of 20 years or more.
To do this the New Zealand Defence Force commissioned MetOcean Solutions to be complete a 24 year hind cast of wave conditions for the Southern Ocean.
The hind cast used the optimized setup of WaveWatch III at 0.1 degree resolution, for all areas south of 31 S globally. The model was run 1993-2017, and all data is available for download from metoceanview.co.nz. Bivariate wave height/wave period tables are available for all grid points, with wave spectra is available at 0.2 degree on request. Using K means clustering a series of 20 sea areas with similar wave characteristics were defined.
How do the wave characteristics of these new Southern Ocean sea areas compare to those currently used to design ships?
The International Association of Class Societies North Atlantic scatter table or bivariate wave height / wave period table is used within ship design to describe the worst case sea conditions a ship will be likely to operate in.
On this plot with significant wave height is on the x-axis and percentage occurrence on the y-axis, the North Atlantic data is shown in red, and the Southern Ocean sea areas in grey. For the sea area to the south of New Zealand, the peak significant wave height is greater than that for the North Atlantic.
The New Zealand Defence Force will present the Southern Ocean Wave Atlas scatter tables to the class societies later this month to enable the implications of the more energetic Southern Ocean wave climate to be determined for the current design rules. A desired outcome is the development of a Southern Ocean notation for designs.
The second important environmental factor that will affect the design of the Southern Ocean Patrol vessel will be sea ice presence and thickness.
Sea ice thickness is required to determine the polar class of a ship. Current satellite sensors cannot measure thickness greater than 0.5m.
This map shows sea ice thickness for November 2018 collected using an L band sensor.
Sea ice thickness is shown in a colour scale, with green being thin ice and orange being thickness of up to 0.5m. The light grey are is where the thickness is greater than 0.5m. While new sensors are becoming available, there still remains issues associated with accuracy of the thickness measurements in the presence of waves and limited validation occurring in the Southern Hemisphere.
As satellite data cannot provide an adequate description of sea ice thickness, physical measurements must be used to determine the polar class of the ship.
The Antarctic Sea-ice Processes and Climate (ASPECT) database is the only available data in the Southern hemisphere and was used in the determination of the polar class of the Australian Antarctic Division’s new ice breaker.
The database is a collection of volunteer ship observations. In this map of the Ross Sea for the summer months, of December, January and February. Ice thickness greater than 3m are shown in red. Yellow dots are for 1-3m Green 0.1 – 1m. The maximum ice thickness in the area is 13m. And in the eastern Ross Sea ~ 20% of observations are greater than 3m. This sea ice thickness information will be used with the desired operational profile of the ship to determine the polar class.
I would now like to hand over to Commander Mark Tapsell who will provide an overview of the operational scenarios the vessel is likely to be required to complete.
Through the process of developing the projects High Level Requirements and engagement with the wider stakeholder group for the User Requirements, it quickly became evident that users required a very different capability set to that provided by the current Otago Class Offshore Patrol Vessel, notably in the support required by New Zealand’s Other Government Agencies and Crown Research Institutes.
To better understand and inform on the range of requirements and how they potentially could be achieved, a number of operational scenarios have been developed and detail potential situations and tasks based on historical missions, stakeholder engagement, and operational assessments.
The scenarios outline some of the more challenging and demanding missions the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel may be required to conduct. They also provide additional data for activities that potentially could be carried out in support of Other Government Agencies.
Noting the project is in the very early stages of Capability Definition, the tasks within are not necessarily indicative of the final capability set. Other key scenarios and capability considerations are not covered but will provide some context to the capability, including the ability to undertake and support Search and Rescue Operations as well as contributing to the wider naval capability to undertake and support Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations.
Whilst an additional key consideration and driver for this capability, will be to minimise the integration impacts into current and future Navy systems, by utilising common systems, equipment and suppliers where appropriate.
There will also be an initiative to leverage technology, to not only reduce crew numbers, but to future proof systems and develop training solutions that will meet the needs of future sailors.
The first Scenario describes - Fishing Vessel Monitoring & Inspection. Royal New Zealand Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel on patrol in the Southern Ocean, identifying a vessel of interest, and with Fishery Officers undertaking a boarding and inspection of the vessel. In this case inspection was undertaken in benign, ice free conditions.
New Zealand is actively involved with the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). As a member of CCAMLR, New Zealand is committed to its principles, which provide for the conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
In New Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) leads our countries participation in CCAMLR and is supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), in the provision of technical fisheries science and management advice to support the valuable Ross Sea Tooth-Fish fishery. MPI also conduct compliance activities to ensure the fishing fleet are operating legally.
The New Zealand Defence Force supports these activities by conducting air surveillance and surface patrols.
Surface patrols have traditionally been carried out at the start of the fishing season from 1 December in the Northern areas of the Ross Sea. As the Olympic Fishery areas of the Ross Sea close and the sea ice retreats, the fishing vessels generally transit further south and then east into areas where ice conditions and distances have previously restricted surface patrols from operating.
Additionally, with global trends trending towards increasing pressure on food security, the threat of illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing, in the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea is forecast to remain into the foreseeable future.
On sailing from Auckland in late November for the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea, the ship commences Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance using organic sensors and embarked remotely piloted aerial systems. The Ship contributes to and receives the Common Operating Picture managed by the Joint Force Headquarters, to aid in situational awareness and tactical planning throughout the deployment.
Situational awareness allows the Ship to plan and conduct inspections of Fishing Vessels operating within New Zealand’s Territorial Waters and Exclusive Economic Zone from the start of the patrol – and then within the CCAMLR areas. On identification of a Vessel of Interest, the Ship increases speed and closes. Internally, Fisheries Officers, Navy boarding teams and boats crews, prepare within the ships sea boat operations area with briefings and dressing according to the environmental conditions.
Once an inspection is authorised the Fisheries Officers and boarding team are safely transported to the Vessel of Interest (VOI) in one of the Ship’s deployable boats with due consideration to the environmental conditions. Whilst deployed away from the Ship, all personnel are able to maintain constant communication with each other and the Ship.
The inspection is monitored and managed by the Ships Command Team and supporting staff in the Ship’s dedicated Operations Room. The evolution is able to be carried out in conditions up to and including Sea State 4, with the ships boat standing by the boarded vessel for the duration of the boarding.
In this instance the remote piloted aerial system has also been deployed, initially to gather photographic evidence and then to intercept and monitor a second VOI.
Once the inspection is complete the boat returns to the Ship and all personnel, is recovered on board. Personnel then transit direct to the boat operations area, which includes a ‘wet area’ for the removal of wet clothing, which is cleaned and then placed in the adjacent drying room. Personnel will remain in the operations area for bio-security, de-contamination and debriefing.
The monitoring and inspection of Fishing Vessels operating in and around ice is one of the more challenging tasks the Ship is required to conduct. If a fishing vessel is operating in ice or ice is a barrier between the Ship and the vessel then the command team will need to consider a number of key factors, such as:
- The most efficient route to intercept the VOI
- The Polar Class and manoeuvrability of the Ship,
- Current and forecasted ice, sea and environmental conditions, and
- The ability of the ships boat to operate in and near ice which includes the protection of the boats crews from the environmental conditions.
In a typical deployment the Ship will:
• Operate independently;
• Sail over 7000nm;
• And be away from port for over 35 days – including 25 days of persistent patrol in the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea at an average of patrol speed of 8 knots. During an extended deployment the Ship may:
• sail over 10000nm;
• And be away from port up to 60 days.
It should be noted that concurrent tasks such as supporting science and resupply operations would also be carried out as determined by operational tempo and tasking’s.
Interoperability with other surveillance assets including real-time connectivity with multiply systems and organisations will be critical.
The Ship should be capable of operating in the vicinity of all vessels of interest operating in the Southern Ocean and Northern Ross Sea all year round. Currently, the majority of fishing monitoring is undertaken during the Austral Summer months with the possibility of extending into the extended Austral Summer. And of interest, MPI and the Fishing Industry are investigating the sustainability of winter fishing in the Northern Ross Sea.
Seakeeping performance will be a key factor for the areas of operation, especially when operating in or close to ice and at slower speeds.
Determining the correct level of Polar Class for the vessel will be critical in ensuring appropriate ice strengthening. Additionally, compliance to the Polar Code will be a key factor. Both Polar Class and Polar Code compliance are seen as significant capability cost drivers, whilst the compromises between performance in ice and sea keeping, are seen as critical design drivers.
Additionally, the vessel will operate independently, remotely and for extended periods of time with limited opportunity for replenishment, so range and endurance will be critical.
The Second scenario looks at a resupply or logistics support mission We have another short clip that shows HMNZS Canterbury resupplying Raoul Island by helicopter and an Offshore Patrol Vessel conducting boat resupply operations in the Sub-Antarctic, with ship’s crew and department of conservation personnel undertaking operations ashore.
The subantarctic islands of New Zealand are made up of five separate island groups.
All five island groups are National Nature Reserves with activity on the Islands managed by the Department of Conservation. Activities generally include:
• Resupply and maintenance of existing facilities;
• Building of new facilities; and
• Pest eradication activities.
The New Zealand Defence Force supports activities on the islands – as well as other New Zealand Offshore Islands, including Antarctica, by providing transport for equipment, stores and personnel. The Defence Force also, on occasion, provides personnel resources to assist in transporting, building and maintaining facilities on the islands.
The Sub-Antarctic islands are remote and have very limited facilities for transport of equipment and personnel to and from vessels.
A deployment of this type could be conducted as part of another operation such as the previous scenario – or any other patrol activity in the Exclusive Economic Zone.
Alternatively, the deployment may require a longer term commitment to support a large scale pest eradication operation or complex facilities resupply or maintenance.
In this scenario, the Ship embarks the required stores, personnel and working dogs from a New Zealand port as part of the deployment loadout. The stores have been palletised and secured inside a standard 20ft container or containers. The Ship utilises an organic system to load the 20ft container(s) and it is secured on board for transport to Campbell Island.
The working dogs are brought on board and housed in their dedicated kennels for the transit south. The Department of Conservation staff are also embarked and given berths in the dedicated Other Government Agency accommodation cabins.
On arrival, the majority of the palletised stores are transported ashore in the Ship’s organic small landing craft. The landing craft is able to unload the stores directly ashore with an organic handling system.
A selection of the palletised stores are broken down into helicopter sized loads, safely moved to the helo deck, and then transported to a remote in-land site that will act as a base for operations on the island.
The personnel and working dogs are transported ashore by a Ship’s workboat. The evolutions are able to be carried out in conditions up to and including a minimum of Sea State 3.
All personnel and stores that proceed ashore are taken through a biosecurity decontamination process on board to ensure no unauthorised material is transported onto the islands.
Key considerations derived from this scenario include:
• A small Landing Craft able to be easily deployed from the Ship to transport various stores and personnel across the shore to areas that have limited or no wharf facilities.
• Cargo capacity, storage and movement on the ship, noting the areas of operation will need to be considered.
• Transfer of stores by helo over the shore is a key consideration and capability cost driver.
The last scenario looks at support to science requirements.
The Defence Capability Plan 2019 articulates the importance of preserving the Southern Ocean and New Zealand’s marine living resources. In the coming years it is likely that a range of factors will lead to an increase in resource competition, impacting on access to, and sustainability of, marine resources in New Zealand, the Pacific, and the Southern Ocean. As such, New Zealand must be equipped to better support the sustainability of marine resources in the Southern Ocean, and New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Another key consideration is monitoring and mitigating the effects of climate change, through supporting New Zealand’s civilian presence in Antarctica and undertaking monitoring and data collection in the Southern Ocean. With this in mind, the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel will be used by the Defence Force alongside Other Government Agencies, in the Southern Ocean and New Zealand’s EEZ, to support non-Defence functions including the gathering of scientific data.
During a deployment support to science activities can be divided into two main categories – primary or secondary science operations. Secondary Science Operations provide minimal disruption to the Ships mission and would include activities that are carried out whilst the Ship is in transit or on patrol in the area of operations. And typically able to be carried out, in conditions up to sea state 4.
Primary Science Operations are undertaken when support to science is the ships key focus and output. The operating condition limits for the various primary activities will vary, however range between sea-states 3 and 4.
Secondary Science Operations undertaken by the ship include:
• Deployment of a Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) - A self-contained towed body that is able to be towed at passage speed. At regular intervals, the recorder is recovered for a silk membrane to be changed before being redeployed for additional sampling.
• Deployment of a Conductivity Temperature and Depth (CTD) recording device. The Ship will stop at regular intervals and deploy the recording device over the side.
The Ship must maintain station while the device is deployed to the desired depth, prior to being recovered. On recovery of the CTD, the Ship continues passage while the samples are analysed in the dedicated science laboratory and results collated and sent back to scientists ashore, during the deployment for databasing.
Whilst underway and clear of ice the Ship will also operate its Multi-Beam Echo Sounder to record hydrographic data. The data is recorded onboard and is able to be transferred electronically to Land Information New Zealand at regular intervals.
Primary activities undertaken by the ship include Wave Buoy recovery and servicing.
As the Ship transits south, it arrives in the position required to recover a previously deployed wave buoy. The Ship must maintain station while the buoy and associated mooring equipment is recovered and laid out on the working deck for servicing. Once serviced and a new buoy fitted, the buoy is re-deployed in position. The recovered buoy is analysed in a dedicated science laboratory and again, stored data collated and sent back to scientists ashore during the deployment for databasing.
The main mission for the ship in this instance is to undertake extended Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) operations under the Ross Sea Ice Shelf. The AUV is prepared on board in a suitable workshop environment prior to being deployed overboard. The ship will maintain position for the deployment and recovery operations.
Once the mission is complete, the AUV surfaces, and is recovered by the ship. Onboard the ship, the AUV is moved to the dedicated workshop area for post-mission maintenance and data download and analysis. High resolution data from the AUV, is also able to be sent ashore.
Key considerations include:
• The safe launch and recovery of various scientific equipment with the ability to maintain precise position keeping.
• The ability to incorporate onto, and, into the ship, various modular scientific capabilities to achieve the ships mission(s).
In closing, I hope that starts to explain or give you some insight into what this capability is likely to provide to the Government of New Zealand.
As previously stated, the scenarios covered today do not describe the full range of potential requirements for the ship and are not necessarily indicative of the final capability set. And at this point I will hand you back to Robert.
An ice-strengthened offshore patrol vessel for Southern Ocean operations was identified as an area for investment in the Defence Capability Plan 2019.
Experience tells us that we need a new vessel with distinctly different characteristics to the current OTAGO Class Offshore Patrol Vessel. Any new capability must be designed for, and capable of safely undertaking operations in, the sea conditions typical of the Southern Ocean - and the sea ice present in Antarctic waters.
The transit to 60°South and beyond includes extreme sea conditions not found anywhere else in the world. The waters around Antarctica and in the Ross Sea are cooling as a result of glacier melt; and ice concentrations, plus the extent of ice, has been increasing year on year.
Of specific interest to ship designers - wave buoys located within the sea ice of the Ross Sea have dispelled the myth that the presence of ice in this area significantly dampens waves – as sea ice does in the Arctic.
Human factors also need to be considered such as: the impact of extreme cold and extended hours of daylight which makes all activities in the area of operations significantly more difficult and dangerous.
Defence Models and Graphics Pty Ltd
A concept model of a SOPV from Defence Models & Graphics PTY Ltd made a year ago. (note that this was only a concept and is not the actual design)
