Thread: Australia buys large drones for surveillance

Originally Posted by bob10

Unmanned aircraft armed with missiles & bombs, drones that can cover the size of Switzerland in a day, the way of the future.

Surveillance splurge: Government spends $7 BILLION on six 'Triton' drones in preparation for buying unmanned aircraft armed with missiles

Interesting, but how many Switzerlands will fit into Oz? Or even into our Maritime Exclusion Zone?

Originally Posted by donh54

Interesting, but how many Switzerlands will fit into Oz? Or even into our Maritime Exclusion Zone?

One Poseiden P3 can control any number of drones, and in the new linked and digital set up, all the info collected can be transmitted to any other ADF asset, or even to Canberra. A quantum leap over what we do at the moment. Arm the predators with modern weapons, put in to the equation those unmanned surveillance aircraft being tested at Wyndham, use the F25's to control swarms of attack drones, use the surveillance info to position the new submarines where they would be most useful, a picture emerges of a very useful defence capability. We need to get it right the first time, because in modern warfare we may not get a second chance.

I just have issues with relying on another nation to supply our military systems. Memories haunt me of things like the Carl Gustav anti-tank weapon. A basic, easy to use, simple to train weapon system. Would have been a brilliant bunker-buster in Vietnam, except the Swedes would only allow us to use it within Australia, purely for defence.
That meant our troops were limited to a much less effective weapon (66mm LAW) shorter range, and nowhere near the punch.
Surely we have enough nous in this country to develop these things ourselves? Would make a much better export than live sheep

I was of the opinion that we had already bought Tritons , the old ones are gone , unless they have ordered more , but the new ones have been operating out of Woomera doing testing and on other bases for some time.

I can confirm this with a couple of RAAF senior personnel on thurs/fri.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

I was of the opinion that we had already bought Tritons , the old ones are gone , unless they have ordered more , but the new ones have been operating out of Woomera doing testing and on other bases for some time.

I can confirm this with a couple of RAAF senior personnel on thurs/fri.

they will be new build Tritons, perhaps even an upgrade version. Rumour is the predator could be purchased for the attack role.

YouTube

This is an overview of the Triton capability, published in 2015.

YouTube

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

I was of the opinion that we had already bought Tritons , the old ones are gone , unless they have ordered more , but the new ones have been operating out of Woomera doing testing and on other bases for some time.

I can confirm this with a couple of RAAF senior personnel on thurs/fri.

EDIT I was Wrong again. the article was talking about the Poseidon. . This may explain.

Australia commits to Triton – confusion over cost - CONTACT magazine