• From Left, Neil Tavener, Bryan Clarke, Alan Lavery (from Ron Allum Deepsea Services), and Peter Formby from the Defence Science and Technology Group with the Sun Ray Glider at Woronora Dam, Sydney.
    From Left, Neil Tavener, Bryan Clarke, Alan Lavery (from Ron Allum Deepsea Services), and Peter Formby from the Defence Science and Technology Group with the Sun Ray Glider at Woronora Dam, Sydney.
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In the lead up to Autonomous Warrior 2018 in November this year, DST Group has put the call out for industry to respond to an Expression of Interest to support the activity.


Autonomous Warrior 2018 is a multi-nation event to be held by Defence in November 2018 in Jervis Bay, NSW. It is a joint initiative of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Chief Defence Scientist. DST is the project lead.


Autonomous Warrior 2018 will involve three weeks of activities from 5 to 23 November 2018 at HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay Airfield and associated sites, in Jervis Bay. Following this there will be a 'Media Day' and two separate 'VIP Days' intended to engage ADF and Australian Government stakeholders as well as potential export customers.


Attendees are likely to include senior ADF officers including the Chief of Navy and members from Army and Air Force, The Technical Cooperation Program Principals and participating S&T staff, senior military officers from Five Eyes nations, regional Defence partners from military and science areas, industry and national media.


Through Autonomous Warrior 2018, Defence intends to build upon the success of the UK's Unmanned Warrior 2016, which involved industry participating in military missions, operational tasking efforts, innovative autonomous challenges and complex data integration.

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Chief of Army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, AO, DSC is given a demonstration of 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment's unmanned explosive ordnance robot during a visit to 7th Combat Brigade at Gallipoli Barracks on 8 February 2018.

In Autonomous Warrior 2018, Defence will focus on the future of autonomous and unmanned technology in contexts where it may be beneficial to limit human operators in certain tasks – for example, high risk or monotonous tasks. Autonomous Warrior 2018 is comprised of three different types of activities:

  1. The Industry Dynamic Exhibition, providing an opportunity for industry to showcase its technology and ingenuity;
  2. The Autonomy Strategic Challenge (also known as "The Wizard of Aus" or WoA), a set of multi-nation scientific trials held under the auspices of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP); and
  3. Navy and Army using In-Service autonomous and unmanned assets.

This call for Expressions of Interest and the subsequent Proposal process is for participants in the Industry Dynamic Exhibition only and closes on July 4.

The TTCP and RAN Support components will be run and administered under separate processes.


Successful respondents will be provided with indicative schedules of the activities occurring as part of the exhibition. Further information about the EoI process and Autonomous Warrior 2018 can be found here.

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