Ukraine drone warfare to force Australian reckoning

As drones dominate the battlefield in the Ukraine-Russia war, Australia’s biggest gain will be to accelerate innovation and break away from the risk-averse, stalling military procurement process.

Delays and cost overruns have long plagued major Australian defense projects, but the game-changing nature of drone warfare in Ukraine should be a wake-up call, retired Australian Army major general Mick Ryan warns.

He traveled to Ukraine to analyze UAV warfare and stated that Australia’s current UAV capability was “limited”.

“The Australian Army has the same number of drone units as before the war in Ukraine began,” he told AAP.

“We have been too slow, intellectually sloppy, and too arrogant.

“We think what’s happening in Ukraine is not relevant to the Pacific, but the truth is that it’s extraordinarily relevant; we just need accurate translations.”

He says Canberra needs to reassess its appetite for risk and failure.

“We are still a greenfield low-risk organization in the Australian government, not one that is willing to tolerate failure with taxpayers’ funds, even if you learn from it.

“These are very important and political aspects that absolutely need to change before we can make significant progress,” says the military strategist.

“There needs to be a top-down re-evaluation of how procurement works…it needs to be more bottom-up and better connected to the defense industry to have a faster feedback loop.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Lincoln Parker of the Australian Defense Innovation Network, a state and federally funded collaboration between nine NSW and ACT universities that has produced drone prototypes that will ultimately be tested in Ukraine.

“Speed ​​is the new stealth,” says Mr. Parker, the keynote speaker at the International Drone Expo in Odense, Denmark.

“Of course, for Australia, this is not something we have ever focused on.

“Especially in the Department of Defense, acquisition cycles have been talked about for decades. If you don’t change this mindset, you will lose.”

The Albanian government marked 22 billion dollars for this project drone, counter-drone and other autonomous system technologies in the next ten years.

But the biggest dilemma for the government is that drone technology is outpacing fast fashion.

“Ukrainians are faced with new advanced technology from the Russians (backed by China) on a weekly basis,” Mr Parker told AAP.

He says defense top officials need to urgently think about potential supply chain issues.

“We don’t have land borders…we don’t have a sovereign supply chain.

“We’re in big trouble; we need to take these lessons seriously or we’ll have strife,” Mr. Parker said, noting that 90 percent of the world’s magnets are controlled by China and there is no magnet recycling program.

Likewise, most of the processing of rare earth minerals is done in China.

Danish Defense Chief Michael Hyldgaard said it was vital that Western countries closely examine the dynamics on the battlefield in Ukraine to give their soldiers a fighting chance in future conflicts.

“We need to be better and faster to deal with the ever-changing war,” he said at a public event in Folkemødet on the Danish island of Bornholm.

According to Andreas Graae, associate professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, key trends emerging from the Ukraine war include some drones with “last-mile autonomy” when zeroing in on targets, a kill zone of more than 20 km on the front line, and “gamification” (Ukrainian military units receiving points for tanks they kill and destroy).

There is also extended scale for long-range deep attacks.

In December 2022, Ukraine’s 650 km drone strike on an air base in southern Russia was considered cutting-edge. Fast forward four years and the Ukrainians carried out a 1,750-kilometer drone attack on a Russian oil refinery.

At the airport at the Odense International Drone Show, Ukrainian V’yacheslav Shvydak, a former lieutenant turned drone maker, displays his company Dropla’s Danish-made unmanned ground vehicle.

“These are destroyed very quickly on the battlefield. The average lifespan is that you can complete five missions,” Mr. Shvydak says.

Costing about the price of a second-hand car, the unmanned ground vehicle is used for logistics and medical evacuations, like today’s Simpson and the Donkey.

Dropla also has an AI system called Blue Eyes that hunts Russian ambush drones and explosive munitions in environments prohibited by the Global Navigation Satellite System.

“Ambush drones are regular drones connected to a fiber optic cable, which means it’s not radio controlled, which means it doesn’t emit any radio frequencies… you don’t see it coming,” Mr. Shvydak says.

Initially wanting to detect mines, he started this venture with humanitarian ideals at heart.

“A man from the (Ukrainian) special forces approached us and it was a very open and direct conversation.

“He said, ‘It’s lovely what you’re doing for humanitarian demining, but literally stop talking nonsense and help the front line; if we don’t hold the front line, there won’t be any land to clear from mines,’” Mr. Shvydak said. says Mr. Shvydak.

“I want only one thing for my people: to stop losing their DNA on the battlefield.”

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