Land Forces 2026: Australian Army prepares for UAV scale-up

Australian Army soldiers from 3rd Brigade operate a Quantum Systems Vector AI 2-in-1 UAV. (Gordon Arthur)

Drone companies from Australia and overseas had a prominent presence at Land Forces 2026, held in Perth from 6–8 October, as vendors responded to growing demand from the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Brigadier James Davis, Director General Systems and Integration, Australian Army, told Janes at the exhibition that the number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in service with the army is “in the low thousands”.

“I don't know the exact number and that probably points to a philosophy, as some of this is decentralised and we allow units to acquire their own systems. And the other thing is, a lot of these systems are what we call attritable, so we don't expect they'll have a particularly long life,” he said.

UAV fleet

The largest aircraft in army service is the Insitu Integrator, while the army operates about 20 different Group 1 and 2 UAV types in the sub-25 kg category. Under Project DEF129, for example, the army introduced the 1.4 kg fixed-wing Sypaq Corvo X, with deliveries completed in early 2026. The service is also flying the Quantum Systems Vector AI 2-in-1, and Elbit Systems Skylark I-LEX. In addition, a couple of hundred Teledyne FLIR Black Hornet nano-UAVs are in circulation.

Brig Davis also listed quadcopter-type UAVs acquired under the Advanced Strategic Capability Accelerator (ASCA) sovereign UAV programme. “Why we asked ASCA to do that project for us is that, since about 2023, we haven't allowed the use of DJI drones in defence for security reasons,” he said.

Brig Davis said such UAVs perform important functions, including general-purpose training. “And so we asked Australian industry to produce an equivalent drone for those purposes.”