Inside Operation Hawkeye: How military aircraft could have spied on locked down Victorians
Military spy aircraft tracking your movements from 2km above — it was the government’s eerie plan to crack down on Victorians during lockdown. Here’s why it was scrapped at the last minute.
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Unmanned military spy aircraft would have been used to alert police to Victorians ignoring coronavirus rules under a controversial plan rejected by the Defence Force.
The Herald Sun can reveal that a week before the Easter long weekend, Victorian authorities asked the ADF for drones to identify illegal public gatherings so officers could be sent to hand out fines.
Defence assessed that the request would likely have required the deployment of the Shadow 200 unmanned aerial vehicle, which provided reconnaissance and target acquisition support to our troops in Afghanistan.
It can travel at up to 200km/h and provide real-time footage from an altitude of 2.4km.
It is understood the ADF rejected the request — made by Emergency Management Victoria for Victoria Police’s Operation Hawkeye — because it did not fit with its focus of reassuring and supporting the community.
The Herald Sun can also reveal that in the days after Defence shut down the idea, Daniel Andrews told colleagues he did not want troops on the streets because it could give the impression the crisis was not under control.
The Premier has been embroiled in a war of words over the last week as he refused to concede that the ADF offered support for the state’s hotel quarantine system, the source of Victoria’s deadly second wave.
Three ministers have told the Herald Sun that in early April they heard the Premier say he did not want members of the ADF walking around the city in camouflage because he was worried about how it would affect the public.
Two of them said the Premier uttered the warning during an online meeting of Victorian cabinet members held without public servants present. A third recalled Mr Andrews making the remarks but was not certain of the forum.
Senior members of the public service were also worried about Defence uniforms flooding the streets because it could have increased anxiety during an already tense situation.
This was of particular concern to some Department of Health and Human Services staff, who were keen to keep a careful balance between enforcement and encouraging a positive public health response.
On Wednesday, Mr Andrews distanced himself from the drone request, saying the details were “not known to me”.
He rejected questions about whether Victorians should be concerned about Defence drones being used to spy on them, saying the plan was likely “about trying to monitor movement in one way or another, or whether crowds were gathering as they shouldn’t have done”.
The police force has not publicly confirmed the existence of Operation Hawkeye, although it has acknowledged its use of drones to enforce public health rules.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said on Wednesday that drones were “quite valuable in providing real-time information on people’s behaviour”.
He said police had been receiving reports of people gathering on beaches and at popular camping spots during warmer weather.
“Our request was to increase that capacity around drones. We’ve got some of our own, we were just looking for some support there,” Mr Nugent said.
He suggested the ADF felt that the request was “of such a nature that we were able to deal with it on our own”.
But Lieutenant General John Frewen, who leads Defence’s COVID-19 task force, said it was blocked because it was not “the right thing for us to be supporting at the time”.
In a statement, Emergency Management Victoria said the request was for “additional resourcing options which would supplement Victoria’s existing remote piloted aerial systems capability’.
The Herald Sun can also reveal a similar request from the South Australian government to monitor the Victorian border was also rejected earlier this month.
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