Footage shows how out-of-date Australia’s military is

Footage from the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows robot wars are now a reality – but experts fear Australia is out of time to catch up to the rest of the world’s military.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict, with the first instances of non-human battles between both sides, has shown that robot wars are now a reality and Australia’s military is falling far behind.

The Australian Defence Force needs to move with much greater urgency to secure sovereign drone and AI capacities, according to Lowy Institute senior fellow for military studies and former Australian Army major general Mick Ryan.

“They (the defence bureaucracy) think they have time, they are out of time … the rest of the world is leaving Australia behind,” Mr Ryan said.

MQ-9B SkyGuardian Army drone. Picture: Supplied

The Russia-Ukraine war has for the first time seen numerous drone-on-drone battles as autonomous and remote-controlled conflict becomes more sophisticated, including with sea drone swarms – which Kyiv calls Sea Baby drones – sinking at least four Russian warships in the Black Sea since 2022, attacking Russian oil platforms and downing Russian helicopters with anti-aircraft guns and Sea Dragon missiles.

In late December, reports also emerged of the first Ukrainian ground attack to exclusively use only robotic systems, with dozens of un-crewed ground combat vehicles (UGV) armed with machine guns and mines and aerial first-person view (FPV) drones during frontline fighting near Lyptsi.

In what has been described as a ‘Cambrian explosion’ of rapid drone development, both Ukraine and Russia now produce millions of drones, including Kyiv’s new-generation technology that allows a long-range drone mothership to release smaller attack drones when it nears its target.

Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko with the Australian-made Precision Payload Delivery System drone and SYPAQ chief engineer Ross Osborne, founder and chairman George Vicino and managing director David Vicino. Picture: Supplied

Red McClintock of Sydney firm Droneshield with a drone jamming gun at the London DSEI exhibition of defence and security equipment. Picture: Danielle Gusmaroli

While military drones were used during the 1991 Gulf War, and during targeted attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Waziristan, the Russia-Ukraine conflict had dramatically increased their technology, utility and deployment, Mr Ryan said.

With the huge expanses in the Pacific and increased regional instability, it was vital Australia’s military immediately took steps to make serious investment in drone development, he said.

While the Australian navy has conducted some un-crewed surface and undersea trials, the “slow, cautious and risk averse” approach, particularly in the civilian bureaucracy, was stalling progress and “the army would be doing far more if they hadn’t had a huge amount taken from them by AUKUS.”

AI (artificial intelligence) was now being used in drones and integrated into ‘last-mile targeting’ to pinpoint attacks and also needed to be adopted, with human oversight, Mr Ryan said.

Australia has impressive niche developers, including Melbourne-based SYPAQ, which has sent thousands of lightweight, cardboard-wing precision-payload drones to Ukraine and ASX-listed DroneShield which is a world-leader in anti-drone defences.

But Mr Ryan said the Ukraine-Russia conflict had shown Australia, which in 2022 cancelled a $1.3bn project for 12 SkyGuardian armed drones, must invest more in sovereign capacity to secure supply of cutting-edge drones for the ADF by diverting enough expenditure from major platform, air and sea crewed projects.