Sydney, NSW
The Defence Innovation Network (DIN) has funded three new Strategic Investment Initiative (SII) projects taking on two of the most urgent problems in modern warfare: reliable drone navigation when GPS is denied, and passive electronic warfare sensing to counter drone threats at the tactical edge.
The projects, drawn from DIN’s nine NSW and ACT member universities, will build prototypes at Technology Readiness Level 4 to 6 over the next 6 to 18 months, with a clear pathway into industry, allied militaries and follow-on venture and government investment.
The projects
- Bio-Inspired and Neuromorphic Multi-Modal Navigation for GPS-Denied High-Speed UAS. Led by Western Sydney University with UNSW Canberra.
A low-power, bio-inspired neuromorphic navigation stack running on the ASTRA edge-AI accelerator, with a flight demonstration inside six months and a sovereign commercialisation path.
- VIGIL-Nav: Vision-Guided Intelligent Localisation and Navigation for UAVs in GPS-denied Environments. Led by the University of Wollongong with Macquarie University.
Vision-based onboard navigation for high-speed uncrewed aerial systems when satellite positioning is jammed or spoofed, with a prototype demonstration inside six months.
- SPECTRA-EW: Distributed Cognitive Wideband Passive RF Sensing for Counter-UAS at the Tactical Edge. Led by Macquarie University with the University of Technology Sydney.
A distributed, passive sensing-first approach to detecting and defeating agile, jam-resilient drone threats without lighting up the emitter.
Battlefield-sourced problems, world-class Australian answers
The three projects were shaped from problem statements sourced directly from operators and allied partners facing these threats today. Both problem sets were developed with the US Army Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U), the dedicated headquarters established to coordinate and oversee long-term security assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The electronic warfare problem was refined further through direct engagement with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including in-person work with COL Pavlo Khazan of the General Directorate of Electronic and Cyber Warfare, whose teams confront these drone and jamming threats in combat every day.
That connection matters. It anchors SPECTRA-EW in a live operational problem set from one of the most contested drone and electronic warfare environments in the world, and gives the Macquarie University and University of Technology Sydney team a clearer path from prototype to allied relevance.
COL Rachael Hoagland, US Army Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, said battlefield-informed collaboration helps move promising technology toward the problems that matter most.
“I would like to see more organisations working directly with Ukrainian operators and engineers. They are seeing new threats before anyone else and adapting faster than anyone else. The feedback loops are measured in days and weeks, not years. If you want to understand what works, what doesn’t, and where technology needs to go next, there is enormous value in engaging directly with those end users. That’s why initiatives like this matter. Australian universities have world-class technical capability, and DIN provides a mechanism to connect that capability to real operational problems and rapidly move promising ideas toward prototype solutions.”
— COL Rachael Hoagland, US Army Security Assistance Group-Ukraine
A/Prof Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Director of the Defence Innovation Network, said the SII round shows what a university-led model can do when it is pointed at the right problems.
“Australian universities have world-class capability in autonomy, sensing and AI at the edge. What DIN adds is focus. We take a real operational problem, put the best NSW and ACT teams on it, and drive them toward a prototype in months, not years. These three projects are exactly that: world-class research aimed at problems our partners and allies need solved now.”
— A/Prof Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Director, Defence Innovation Network
Lincoln Parker, DIN’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, said the projects also open a pathway that Australian defence research has rarely had.
” What DIN has built through the SII, our allied relationships and the DIN Venture Advisory Council is a genuine second door – into allied military end users, into US and Australian venture capital, and into industry transition. Our researchers have somewhere to go after prototype.”
— Lincoln Parker, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Defence Innovation Network
Why it matters
The strategic environment is not waiting for slow procurement. Drones are cheap, jammers are everywhere, and the side that iterates faster wins. DIN’s model — nine research-intensive universities working shoulder to shoulder with Defence, industry and allied partners — is built for that tempo.
For the member universities, SII projects also deliver something less visible but just as important: pathways and profile. Teams get to test their technology against real problems, work alongside allied operators, attract follow-on investment, and build a track record that opens the next door.
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About the Defence Innovation Network
The Defence Innovation Network is a university-led consortium of nine NSW and ACT universities: Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Macquarie University, University of New South Wales, University of Newcastle, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney (host), University of Wollongong and Western Sydney University. DIN is proudly supported by the NSW Government and the Defence Science and Technology Group, with the University of Canberra joining shortly.
Through its Strategic Investment Initiative, Pilot Projects, Seed grants, PhD scholarships and the DIN Venture Advisory Council, DIN has directly invested more than $15 million and helped facilitate more than $100 million in external investment into NSW and ACT defence research.
Media contact: Lincoln Parker, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Defence Innovation Network | info@defenceinnovationnetwork.com |
