NSW Defence Innovation Network backs next-gen drone and electronic warfare technologies

The latest projects, funded through the Defence Innovation Network’s (DIN) Strategic Investment Initiative, bring together researchers from several NSW and ACT universities to develop prototype technologies over the next six to 18 months, with the goal of transitioning successful capabilities into Australian industry, allied defence programs and future commercial investment.

The three initiatives will mature technologies between Technology Readiness Levels 4 and 6, bridging the gap between laboratory research and operational capability.

Among the projects is a bio-inspired navigation system led by Western Sydney University in partnership with UNSW Canberra. The team is developing a low-power neuromorphic navigation solution capable of guiding high-speed uncrewed aerial systems when satellite navigation is unavailable, with flight trials expected within six months.

Colonel Rachael Hoagland from the US Army Security Assistance Group-Ukraine said closer collaboration with Ukrainian operators offered valuable lessons for allied innovation programs: “I would like to see more organisations working directly with Ukrainian operators and engineers. They are seeing new threats before anyone else and adapting faster than anyone else.”

A second project, led by the University of Wollongong alongside Macquarie University, is focused on vision-based navigation technology that enables autonomous aircraft to continue operating in environments where GPS signals have been jammed or spoofed.

The third initiative, SPECTRA-EW, brings together Macquarie University and the University of Technology Sydney to develop a distributed passive radio frequency sensing capability designed to detect and track hostile drones without revealing the operator’s own position through active emissions.

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Unlike conventional systems that rely on emitting signals, the passive sensing approach is intended to improve survivability while countering increasingly agile and electronically resilient uncrewed systems.

Importantly, all three research programs have been shaped by operational requirements identified by allied defence organisations confronting these challenges in active conflict.

DIN head of strategic partnerships Lincoln Parker said the organisation was also creating stronger pathways for Australian defence innovations to move beyond research: “What DIN has built through the Strategic Investment Initiative, our allied relationships and the DIN Venture Advisory Council is a genuine second door – into allied military end users, into US and Australian venture capital, and into industry transition.”

The navigation and electronic warfare problem sets were developed in collaboration with the US Army Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, while the electronic warfare project was further refined through direct engagement with Ukrainian military specialists responsible for electronic and cyber warfare operations.

Defence Innovation Network director Professor Marian-Andrei Rizoiu said the initiative demonstrated the value of focusing Australia’s research expertise on clearly defined operational problems: “Australian universities have world-class capability in autonomy, sensing and AI at the edge. What DIN adds is focus.”

That operational input is expected to accelerate the transition from research prototype to deployable capability by ensuring Australian-developed technologies are designed around real-world battlefield requirements.

COL Hoagland expanded on this, saying, “The feedback loops are measured in days and weeks, not years. If you want to understand what works, what doesn’t, and where technology needs to go next, there is enormous value in engaging directly with those end users.”

Rizoiu said: “We take a real operational problem, put the best NSW and ACT teams on it, and drive them toward a prototype in months, not years.”

“Our researchers have somewhere to go after prototype,” Parker said.

The investment reflects the growing urgency of developing technologies capable of operating in increasingly contested electromagnetic environments, where low-cost drones, electronic attack and rapid innovation are reshaping modern warfare.

Established as a consortium of nine NSW and ACT universities, the Defence Innovation Network has invested more than $15 million in defence research while helping secure more than $100 million in additional external investment through partnerships with government, Defence and industry.

Stephen Kuper

Steve has an extensive career across government, defence industry and advocacy, having previously worked for cabinet ministers at both Federal and State levels.