It seems only a few years ago when we were reading about what were essentially ‘toy’ drones doing deliveries of tablets and some limited observation tasks! Well a decade has really wrought change!
The flavour of this article shows just how much movement there has been and how serious drone technology has become!Eight-year wait for anti-drone solution as radical ideas take flight
EXCLUSIVE
By Ben Packham
Foreign Affairs and Defence Correspondent
Updated 11:40AM February 1, 2024, First published at 9:30PM January 31, 2024
Australian soldiers won’t be protected from killer drones for at least eight years on the army’s current timetable, as Defence takes its time to assess potential options including the use of trained eagles and hawks to attack unmanned aircraft in mid-flight.
An army briefing document obtained by The Australian reveals Defence will spend until the middle of 2028 deciding which counter-drone capabilities are mature enough to be purchased.
Options to be considered in the 4½-year “strategy and concepts” phase include jamming, lasers, microwave pulses, projectiles, birds of prey, and nets that can be fired into the air.
A further 2½ years will be spent on risk mitigation and contracting processes before acquisition is scheduled to commence in late 2030.
The approach outlined in the November 11, 2023, document flies in the face of last year’s Defence Strategic Review, which called for Defence to “abandon its pursuit of the perfect solution … and focus on delivering timely and relevant capability”.
According to the unclassified industry briefing document, the army has begun assessing electromagnetic and “kinetic” technologies such as machine guns and missiles to attack incoming drones. It will examine a range of other options this year including directed energy weapons, birds of prey, and “projected netting” rounds being developed by the Canadian military. It will also look at “passive defence” options including camouflage, decoys and “dummies”.
Other countries have used of birds of prey to attack enemy drones. India revealed just over a year ago it had been training native black kites to prey on Pakistani drones along the countries’ disputed border since 2020. Dutch police also trialled a program in 2015 using eagles trained by a private company to protect airspace over airports and other sensitive areas.
The army document says its project will deliver protection against armed and unarmed drones operating individually and in swarms, and be used to defend troops, vehicles, logistics, airfields, vessels and ports.
The drawn-out process comes despite the success of a number of Australian companies in bringing counter-drone systems to market.
Canberra-based Electro Optic Systems’ Slinger – a radar-guided 30mm canon – is already in service in Ukraine, along with Sydney-based company DroneShield’s electromagnetic drone jammers.
The US is also using a range of technologies including signal disrupters, “spoofers” that manipulate drones’ GPS systems, high-energy lasers and anti-drone guns.
Former Defence official Marcus Hellyer said the ADF was “stuck in a paralysis of indecision” because it feared acquiring something that didn’t meet 100 per cent of its requirements.
“They spend all this time scanning the market, spending little drops of money here and there, doing a little bit of research, which is simply a way of deferring having to make decisions about acquisition,” said the Strategic Analysis Australia research director.
“But of course, the threat is moving just as fast. So by the time you’ve done your strategising and your conceptualising, the world has moved on. The whole thing is kind of ludicrous. The bad guys have been using this stuff for a decade, and we’re still just admiring the problem.”
The army briefing tells potential industry partners that their systems must be low-cost, safe to use, resilient enough for the battlefield, and have a high level of technical readiness.
Despite Defence’s failure so far to select any Australian system on the market, the army briefing note advises firms to “respect the project”, and warns it is “not a BD (business development) contest”.
Dr Hellyer said Defence must “start putting money into industry to start making stuff and giving it to your soldiers”.
The Australian revealed this week that the army’s new $13bn armoured vehicle fleet will be vulnerable to killer drones, requiring major upgrades to protect Australian personnel from the growing battlefield threat.
None of the service’s $5bn Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles, its new $3bn fleet of Abrams tanks, nor its $4.5bn infantry fighting vehicles have been ordered with specialised counter-drone systems.
But one senior army commander said this week: “I am working with industry to develop a counter-UAS capability that I can fit to any land vehicle that has a remote weapons station.”
More here:
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/eightyear-wait-for-antidrone-solution-as-radical-ideas-take-flight/news-story/827452b3e87a466d7fdc9a92734b2a50
You only have to look to the other side of the world and the Ukraine – Russia war to see just how central drone technology has become in war and you can be sure that applications of a more preaceful nature will follow on behind.
Where these technologies lead no one can be sure but the peaceful applications in health care and other domains are surely coming as well
It is hard to fathom just how stupid and obtuse our defense planners are to not see the implication of what is going on globally and get organized swiftly, for all our sakes. That the Army is not full bottle and well equipped in this vital are just defies belief! - what is it they say about Generals always fighting the 'last war'?
Sometimes you really have to wonder!
David.
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