{"id":620997,"date":"2026-04-21T08:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620997\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:27:14","slug":"laser-system-part-of-7-billion-investment-in-drone-killing-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620997\/","title":{"rendered":"Laser system part of $7 billion investment in drone-killing technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

Updated April 21, 2026 \u2014 4:25pm,first published 3:48pm<\/p>\n

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A high-energy laser system capable of tracking incoming objects as small as a 10-cent piece is among the locally developed equipment funded as part of $7 billion the federal government is spending on drone-killing technology over the next decade.<\/p>\n

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy announced on Tuesday that, as part of the government\u2019s national defence strategy, investment in counter-drone capabilities over the next 10 years will more than double from the $3 billion forecast two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"DefenceDefence Industry Minister Pat Conroy inspects SYPAQ Systems\u2019 Corvo Strike, quadcopter interceptor drone at the company\u2019s factory in Melbourne.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

The conflicts in Ukraine and Iran have highlighted the pivotal role that drones are playing in modern warfare, and the need for the Australian Defence Force to rapidly improve its ability to both launch, and defend against, drone attacks.<\/p>\n

Conroy said that the government was moving to the next stage of Mission Syracuse, a project designed to develop locally made technologies that can be used to repel drone attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here would once be thought of in movies like Star Wars or other science fiction,\u201d he said at an event in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cStar Wars is happening right now in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DronesDrones being shot down by an Australian-made laser system.Australian Defence Force<\/p>\n

Under the plan, the government\u2019s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) will invest $30 million in Australian firms AIM Defence and SYPAQ Systems to develop their emerging counter-drone technologies.<\/p>\n

The funding for AIM Defence is intended to enhance the combat-readiness of its high-powered counter-drone laser system, known as Fractl, which is designed to deter individual drones and swarms of smaller drones.<\/p>\n

Conroy said the technology was capable of tracking objects as small as a 10-cent piece travelling at more than 100km\/h and was powerful enough to burn through steel.<\/p>\n

The rest of the funding is for SYPAQ Systems\u2019 Corvo Strike, a quadcopter interceptor drone built to track and destroy larger drones such as the Iranian-designed Shahed drones.<\/p>\n

\"MelbourneMelbourne company SYPAQ has become a world leader in drone and counter-drone technology.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

The Shahed kamikaze-style drones cost around $70,000 each to make and have been used to great effect by Russia in the invasion of Ukraine, and by Iran in its fight against the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about protecting our warfighters and making sure drones don\u2019t get anywhere near them,\u201d Conroy said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Shahed-136 Iranian drone has helped inflict huge damage on Ukraine and Gulf nations in recent conflicts. Alamy<\/p>\n

He said militaries were using $3 million missiles to take out $100,000 drones, emphasising the need to develop cheaper and more targeted counter-drone technologies.<\/p>\n

Sypaq Systems, which is based in Melbourne, became well known for creating cheap, lightweight cardboard dronesused by Ukraine to defend against Russia.<\/p>\n

ACSA boss Hugh Meggitt said the investment would \u201cexploit Australian industry\u2019s world-leading expertise in kinetic and directed energy to find, fix, track, target and engage uncrewed aerial vehicles\u201d.<\/p>\n

The $7 billion of spending on counter-drone technology comes on top of the up to $15 billion in uncrewed systems such as the locally made Ghost Shark underwater drone and Ghost Bat aircraft.<\/p>\n

Counter-drone technologies will also have civilian applications, including protecting major events such as football grand finals.<\/p>\n

\"Melbourne\u2019sMelbourne\u2019s Sypaq Systems became well known for its cheap cardboard drones that have been used by Ukraine.Joe Armao<\/p>\n

The government is mandating that Defence\u2019s counter-drone contracts include civilian capabilities to shield Olympic sites from attack.<\/p>\n

Two main forms of technology are used to counter drone attacks. As drone expert Jamey Jacob explained in a piece for The Conversation, directed energy systems use high-energy lasers or microwave beams to disable drones, including by overheating them.<\/p>\n

Kinetic systems, by contrast, involve physically intercepting drones to neutralise them by using net-carrying interceptor drones or more traditional projectile weapons that shoot them out of the sky.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Former senior Defence Department official Michael Shoebridge last week said that the government\u2019s new spending plan provides \u201cvery thin gruel\u201d for drones and counter-drone systems, with just $3 billion allocated over a decade for smaller uncrewed systems.<\/p>\n

Shoebridge, an analyst with the Strategic Analysis Australia think tank, said that \u201cany idea that the ADF is embracing the need to have thousands of cheap drones of diverse types or large numbers of dispersed cheap counter drone defences to cover its forces and maybe even vulnerable civilian facilities or populations is plain wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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\"MatthewMatthew Knott<\/a> is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 21, 2026 \u2014 4:25pm,first published 3:48pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-620997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}