An unspecified Special Operations Unit of the Australian Army will put the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) first loitering munition – the Innovaero Owl – into service later this year.
ADM understands that this is the munition referred to by the Assistant Minister for Defence, Matt Thistlethwaite, at the 2024 ADM Congress in February this year. The Owl has been in development since 2022 for the Army, and is designed to integrate with other uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) being acquired by the ADF.
Innovaero, which has been partially owned by BAE Systems Australia since October 2023, is based in Kardinya, Western Australia.
Austender records show that Innovaero has been awarded more than $5.3 million in Defence contracts since May 2022 to design, develop, build and test the aircraft. During the 2023 Avalon Airshow in March last year, company representatives told ADM Senior Correspondent Julian Kerr that a pre-production prototype would be displayed to Defence before the end of 2023, with a procurement decision to follow.
ADM understands that this demonstration was successful, paving the way for the Owl to enter service this calendar year.
The new system is expected to help the Army both mature its understanding of loitering munitions ahead of them being fielded more broadly across the force and provide a genuine loitering munitions capability to Special Operations Command (SOCOMD).
Throughout the development process Innovaero has collaborated closely with Insitu Pacific, a Boeing subsidiary which is delivering the RQ-21 Integrator UAS to the Army, to maximise commonality between the two systems.
Initially this focused on integrating the Owl with the same pneumatic launcher used by the RQ-21, however, in October 2023 the companies agreed to develop an integrated long-range strike capability using both types of UAS.
As part of this collaboration, they announced their intent to integrate the Owl with Insitu Pacific’s common ground control system and INEXA command and control software.
Neither Defence or Innovaero responded to questions from ADM prior to publication.