Australia Bullish on Drones (Again)

The MQ4C Triton. Credit: Northrop Grumman

ABC News in Australia reported yesterday that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has revived a plan to purchase UAVs for maritime surveillance and intercepting refugees seeking asylum in Australia via boat.  The RAAF is looking to spend up to AUD $3 billion on seven MQ4C Tritons, the marinized version of the Global Hawk, and have them flying by 2019.  The acquisition of drones has been proposed before – in 2004, Canberra approved the purchase of 12 Global Hawks for AUD $1 billion, but the plan was scuttled in 2009 – but the issue of asylum seekers is highly politically charged in Australia these days, with new plans to deport future would-be refugees to detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea beginning in September.

MSC 2012 will feature a panel on unmanned vehicles in the sky, on the water’s surface, and below.  Speakers include Dr Antonios Tsourdos of the UK Defence Academy, who will examine the challenges involved in operating drones, and Major-General (USAF ret’d) Kevin Kennedy, who will offer a glimpse into the future of unmanned operations.  Also among the issues on the MSC agenda is illegal seaborne cargoes, with Dr Andreas Schloenhardt of Queensland University offering Australia’s perspective on the matter, and Vice-Admiral Wills Velez of the Colombian Navy discussing drug trafficking in Latin America.