Australia bets big on new systems and local industry in the face of drone wars
DroneShield is one of the companies bidding to meet Australia’s CUAS requirement. (Photo: DroneShield)
Australia has a small but vibrant drone and counter-drone industry ranging from niche dual technology company Grabba Technologies to large multinational like DroneShield. It is these companies and a reshaping of procurement methods to ramp up its drone power.
Learning from the war in Ukraine, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has tightened its focus on Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) with four separate approaches to market in just over 12 months. It is all part of an effort to create a sovereign UAS and Counter-UAS (CUAS) industry and to re-fashion the Australian Army.
The country’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) has three of them under its remit, with the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) running the fourth, Project Land 156. This project seeks a Systems Integration Partner (SIP) to manage a Counter Small UAS (C-sUAS) system, including a Command
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