Air Marshal Chipman, former Chief of the Air Force, announced on the eve of the 2023 Avalon Air Show that Australia needs to consider and invest in low-cost mass-produced (LCMP) drones.
The 'poor man's air force' is a term for employing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hobbyist drones or uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to strategic level military effect, and that effect cannot be understated (Waters, 2018; Nadeau, 2022; Shift, 2023). The ability for terror organisations to coordinate multiple layers of effects, including using COTS drones, to destroy Command and Control (C2) nodes in Israel causes alarm. Couple this with the use of COTS drones for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike and battle-damage assessment missions, and the threat posed by what are essentially toys is alarmingly real.
Evolution of Air Bases - Darwin Revisted
David Miller
Australian Defence Force
Airbases do not feature significantly in the history of air power unless they are denied.
The onset of the war in Ukraine saw one of the most dramatic shifts in combined arms warfare since the introduction of the machine gun. This shift is attributed to the wide scale introduction of drones to the modern battlefield (Kagan et al, 2024). Principally the conflict is demonstrating drones pioneering new capabilities in reconnaissance, close air support and strategic strike with virtually zero risk to the operator.
Train like we fight, fight like we train.
Limited by resources and size the F-35 was the best, and largely only, option available to the ADF that guaranteed long term defense interests.
This time last year, in my first gig as a reservist, I had the pleasure of presenting to the 20th Australian International Aerospace Congress (AIAC20) on the topic of the MQ-4C Triton airworthiness program. Specifically, I spoke about how it had been structured in lieu of any formal recognition of the United States (US) Navy as a competent design organisation for Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) or any formal airworthiness certification of the design basis for the Triton system itself.
A Code of Ethics for Drone Users
Christian Enemark
University of Southhampton
