Defence announces outcome of LAND156 Line of Effort 2

Just four months after the announcement of Project LAND156, which is aimed at countering Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-SUAS) Defence has issued an initial rolling wave of contracts worth $16.9 million to 11 vendors, including five Australian companies, to rapidly deliver counter-drone capability and technologies.

EX² understands, however, that this announcement concerns Line of Effort 2 in Project LAND156 which is focussed on standalone dismounted equipment. Line of Effort 1 is focussed on Defence’s Systems Integration Partner (SIP) role which hasn’t been announced as yet.

According to Defence, following testing more than 120 of the world’s most capable threat detectors and drone-defeating technologies will rapidly be introduced into service by the ADF. But only one company is known for certain to have won a contract and that is Sydney-based DroneShield which won around $5 million – Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy used the DroneShield premises as the platform for his announcement.

“We have accelerated the acquisition of an appropriate mix of drone capabilities to suit Australia’s environment of military interest and are continuing to examine new autonomous capabilities,” said Conroy.“The Australian Government knows drone and counter-drone technology will continue to evolve rapidly. The delivery of cutting-edge drones and counter-drone technology shows the increasing speed at which Defence and industry are able to deliver new capabilities to the ADF.”

Defence will announce further counter-drone acquisitions in the coming months, it says, including SIP Line of Effort 1 contracts to deliver a Command-and-Control (C2) capability, and additional advanced counter-drone sensors and effectors, giving the ADF more options to protect Australian defence bases.

Through Project LAND 156, the ADF will continually upgrade and refresh capabilities to address emerging drone threats, says Defence. This process is driven by $58 million of investment over the past three years in Research and Development (R&D) and prototyping.

Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) launched Mission Syracuse earlier this year to accelerate the development of capabilities to counter medium size drones and swarms of drones, providing cutting-edge future capability options for LAND 156.

Defence says it will invest more than $10 billion on drones over the next decade, including at least $4.3 billion on UASs. This funding will strengthen the sovereign Defence industry, with partners such as Droneshield, Sypaq Systems, AMSL Aero, Grabba Technologies and Boresight already in receipt of contracts following a sovereign UAS trials in April 2024..

These capabilities will complement current in-service drones such as the Black Hornet, PUMA, Wasp, Skylark and R70 Skyranger, says Defence as well as those currently being introduced into service including the Switchblade 300, Insitu Pacific Integrator, and Quantum Systems Vector 2-in-1.

A range of autonomous capabilities is also being tested at Exercise Talisman Sabre to accelerate evaluation and delivery into the hands of the ADF.