Australia Begins its Tender Process to Find a New Man-Portable UAV

30 Agustus 2021

Project Land 129 Phase 4B will find a replacement for the Wasp AE SUAS serving with the Australian Army (photo : ADF)

As predicted last month by the Capability Acquisition & Sustainment Group (CASG), Australia issued an RfI on 25 August concerning a new small unmanned aerial system (SUAS) for the Australian Army.

The system’s primary purpose is to provide ISR support via near real-time video and still images, for the combat team commander by day or night, the RfI explained. In effect, the SUAS will ‘provide an over the hill, down the road and around the corner reconnaissance capability’.

Labelled Project Land 129 Phase 4B, this programme will replace 65 in-service AeroVironment Wasp AEs procured from 2017-21 and which will be retired in 2024. That contract had followed the acquisition of 14 Wasp AE UAVs in 2015 as part of Army Minor Project 024.32 to help develop doctrine, tactics and procedures.

One notable difference to the advance notice issued in July was that the acquisition period had been pushed back a year to FY2024-26.

These SUAS will be disbursed to army manoeuvre brigades, the Special Operations Command and the Army Reserve. It should be man-portable by two soldiers and operable by a single person.

The SUAS should operate in littoral regions, which may include urbanised and densely vegetated areas or even from a small boat. They should assist a combat team in making a quick attack, or perhaps to aid counter-fire, adjust fire against an enemy or perform battle damage assessment.

Each SUAS will comprise an aerial vehicle, payload, ground control station, remote viewing terminal (outside the scope of this programme), operational support equipment and training support equipment.

The military considers a 7km range as ‘very important’ and 10km as ‘important’. By the same token, an endurance of 45 minutes and 60 minutes are considered ‘very important’ and ‘important’, respectively. Its endurance speed should be at least 25kt, though 50kt is deemed ‘important’.

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