Defence calls for Australian drone program to replace risky Chinese-made technology

Defence issues call for industry to provide information on Australian-made drones and systems as it walks away from Chinese-made DJI drones due to security concerns.

DJI drones have been grounded by the Australian Defence Force.

The Defence Department is looking to turbocharge an ­Australia-made drone program as it turns its back permanently on high-risk Chinese-made DJI drones.

Defence has put out a request for information and responses from Australian industry and research institutes “in relation to development of sovereign uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and trusted autonomy capabilities.’’

The request relates to small, unarmed drones to be used for training, photography and survey work.

The call comes three months after Defence decided to get rid of the more than 800 drones – known as UAS in Defence jargon – and other pieces of tech it owned that had been manufactured by DJI, the world’s largest drone company.

The grounding of the drones came after the company was black-listed by the Pentagon amid concerns over its links to the Chinese military, and further concerns that its internet-­connected drones posed an un­acceptable security risk.

The Pentagon has blacklisted Chinese drone-maker DJI. Picture: AFP

The company – formally known as Da Jiang Innovations – is headquartered in Shenzen, China, meaning its data must be provided to Chinese intelligence agencies upon request.

Its technology has also been used to surveil the oppressed ­Uighur population in Xinjiang.

Defence’s new $3.4bn Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator, tasked with getting cutting-edge military technologies into service sooner, has issued the request for information about sovereign drones as its “first innovation challenge’.’

In the industry call-out, the Defence accelerator noted that “sovereign capability means that the commonwealth of Australia will have the ability to access the capability within Australia in a crisis’’.

This appears to indicate that Australia expected to have priority access to drones and related systems in an emergency.

It’s believed the request for information does not rule out submissions from international companies, which may be able to contribute via partnerships with Australian companies.

Australia is also seeking to build its sovereign capability in a number of other areas after shortages of PPE and other essentials during the global Covid lockdowns brought into sharp focus Australia’s reliance on Chinese manufacturing.

“The widespread adoption of modular, cheap, commercial drones, manufactured at scale for a wide range of versatile purposes, has allowed militaries around the world to rapidly adapt these capabilities for new, asymmetric applications,’’ the request for information notes.

“However, the overseas production of these commercial systems carries security and supply chain risks.

“Defence seeks to support an Australian sovereign UAS and trusted autonomy industrial capability, in particular for small, general purpose systems that can be produced at greater scale, to service a wide range of applications.

“These systems should support flexibility and inter­operability via open architecture to enable future development of innovative applications.’’

The request noted that the development of the new drones system would include Defence-industry workshops and “collab­orative development’’.

The accelerator, announced early this year and which became operational only in July, said it was “seeking information to ­support an Australian sovereign uncrewed aerial system (UAS) and trusted autonomy industrial capability, in particular for small, general-purpose system that can be produced at greater scale than is currently possible to service a wide range of applications, but without the security imitations and supply chain vulnerability of current commercial suppliers.’’

It said the information would not be directly linked to procurement contracts but would shape Defence’s thinking “about the investment priorities, issues, risks and opportunities associated with developing sovereign Australian capability in uncrewed aerial systems and trusted autonomy.’’

It does not name any specific country or technology as causing the security risks and supply chain vulnerabilities, but the request has been issued as the Albanese government grapples with how to treat high-risk Chinese tech that is widely used across the public sector.

Opposition cyber security and home affairs spokesman senator James Paterson had been agitating for months about the use by Defence and other agencies such as Home Affairs of high-risk technology provided by Chinese companies, including DJI (drones), Dahua and HikVision (CCTV) and TikTok (social media).

All have gone on to be ­removed from government property.

Senator James Paterson at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“It’s very welcome that after being forced to finally ground their CCP-linked DJI fleet, Defence is now looking at sovereign options to provide drone capabilities,’’ he said.

“Australian defence industry deserves the opportunity to step up to fill this gap and help reduce our reliance on high-risk vendors from auth­oritarian countries.’’