Australian soldiers were given a glimpse of the battlefield of the future, joining an exercise in the United States, where drones and uncrewed vehicles dominated.
Australian Army Head of Land Capability Major General Richard Vagg said the “experimental event” at the US Army National Training Centre at Fort Irwin, California involved 140 Australian personnel, with counterparts from the US, UK, New Zealand, Canada and France integrating emerging technologies into a joint multinational force.
“It’s a key pillar to our modernisation efforts,” Major General Vagg said.
“Not only does it give us the opportunity to experiment with emerging technology, which is nested with our modernisation plans in Australia, it allows us to integrate with our key coalition partners.”
Contingent Commander Colonel David Lipschitz, of 9th Brigade, said military technologies were tested, in addition to integration with coalition partners.
“The aim here is that we are ready; that we’ve not only trained with the technology but also trained with our coalition partners,” Colonel Lipschitz said.
“We need to know how the technology works when we are integrated with our partners, and how to achieve a decisive outcome during operations.”
Major Ben Peterson, of 1st Armoured Regiment, said Australians were working alongside the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Battlegroup from the 2nd Royal Yorkshire Regiment.
Major Peterson said hyper-teaming was one of the key technologies being experimented with, which tested human-machine integration in a field environment.
“We’re getting one soldier to do something that previously took many soldiers. For example, a single controller using multiple uncrewed ground and aerial systems at once,” he said.
