Australia joins drone coalition to help Ukraine war

Australia said Thursday it would join an international drone coalition to aid Ukraine’s war effort, uniting with allies like Britain and Latvia.

“It’s an important way to make our contribution to the effort to have Ukraine stay the course and be able to resolve this conflict on its own terms,” Australian defence minister Richard Marles said.

Ukraine has relied on the massive use of drones to compensate for a shortage of artillery shells as it tries to face down Russia’s invasion.

In the two-year war, hundreds of thousands of drones have been deployed for a range of missions, from striking targets hundreds of kilometres away, to reconnaissance, to attacking nearby enemy troops.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to produce one million drones this year. Ukrainian officials have told AFP the armed forces needed between 100,000 to 120,000 drones per month, making outside help essential.

Australia made the announcement as Canberra hosted UK defence minister Grant Shapps.

Last month Britain and Latvia agreed to lead the drone coalition aimed at delivering thousands more unmanned aerial vehicles to Ukraine.

Shapps said drones had barely featured when the war began, but are “now playing increasingly a significant and sophisticated part”.

“Countries that invest in the drone coalition are not just doing it (for) Ukraine — although that is the primary purpose — but also because that stands as a potential to bring huge technological improvements and advances to our home markets,” Shapps added.

Further details about Australia’s commitment are expected to be made public in the coming weeks.

London has said it would allocate o200 million ($250 million) to provide “the single largest package of drones given to Ukraine by any nation”.

The most common drones on the battlefield, which Britain is providing to Ukraine in the thousands, are so-called First Person View (FPV) drones.

They allow pilots to see live images of the ground, locate enemy units and, if armed with explosives, attack them from within a few kilometres.

Australia operates several surveillance and other drones, and has put hundreds of millions of dollars into developing the MQ-28A Ghost Bat drone, which can travel thousands of kilometres. (BSS/AFP)