Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems (AAUS) - Autonomy in the Joint Military Battlespace 2026

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Autonomy in the Joint Military Battlespace 2026

Date: October 6-8, 2026

Location: Land Forces 2026 (Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre)

AAUS' Autonomy in the Joint Military Battlespace 2026 conference will take place on Wednesday 7th October, 2026 as an associated conference for the Land Forces Exposition at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Autonomy in the Joint Military Battlespace aims to promote engagement between defence and defence industry on the evolving use of autonomy and uncrewed systems for defence applications. It will feature presentations and discussion panels on relevant, topical issues as well as look at the opportunities and challenges facing the autonomous defence sector.

Land Forces 2026 Website

Conference Themes

Current and future ADF programs involving uncrewed systems (land, sea and air domains)
Emerging uncrewed systems technology, innovation and R&D relevant to defence programs
Operation perspectives gained from the use of uncrewed systems in a defence setting
Defence innovation funding programs and opportunities

Event Format

The Land Forces exhibition will take place over three days with the AAUS conference being held on Wednesday 7th October, 2026. Your registration will also include the opportunity to attend the networking drinks event which will follow the conference on the 7th, offsite, between 5.30-7.30pm. Location to be advised closer to the event.

Registration - opening June 2026

All registrations will go through the official Land Forces website as either a trade visitor or a defence visitor. Once you have selected either of these you will then be able to input your details and then select to attend the AAUS Autonomy in the Joint Military Battlespace event.

Registration

All registrations will go through the off

Delegate Type	Early Bird Price	Normal Price
AAUS Member	$370.00	$450.00
Non-Member	$470.00	$550.00
Government	$370.00	$450.00

All pricing inclusive of GST
Early Bird ends 30th June 2026
Normal Pricing from 1st July 2026
All delegates must agree to AAUS Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct
Registration is via the official Land Forces 2026 website

Program

Wednesday 7 October

Meeting Room 1, Level 2, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC)

Time	Activity / Presentation	Presenter
0900	Doors Open
	Session 1:
0930	Welcome	Moderator: Andrew Crowe (AAUS President)
0940	AMDA Welcome	Gus McLachlan (AMDA Board member)
0945	Keynote Presentation	Simeon Ward (ASCA)
1005	Keynote Presentation - Project Camel Train: Hauling!	Keirin Joyce (RAAF)
1025	Racing to the Front Line: The Evolution of Army FPV Strike	Captain Thomas Gash (Army Drone Racing Team) and Captain Andrew Dunn-Lobban (RAS Cell, Land Combat College)
1045	Keynote Presentation	Brigadier James Davis (Australian Army, AM, CSC)
1105	Morning Tea and signing of MoU
	Session 2:
1130	Defence SA Session Welcome	Moderator: Sumen Rai (Defence SA)
1135	Build with Ukraine: Connecting Australia's industry with Battlefield Innovation	Myroslav Popovych (Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry)
1155	Three Years in Ukraine: What Flying V-BAT in the World's Most Contested Airspace Taught Us	Mark Palmer (Shield AI)
1215	The critical need for better alignment between Defence and sovereign industry	Ben Westgarth (Department 13)
1235	Coping with the drone threat: cUAV technologies	Artur Lugmayr (UX Machines)
1300	Lunch
	Session 3:
1415	Session Introduction	Moderator: Cameron Devries (AAUS Board Member)
1420	From Platform to Effect: Uncrewed Surface Vessels impacting Future Joint Operations	Don Roach (EPE Trusted to Protect)
1440	Adapting AI Toward Asymmetric Advantage: The Case for AI-enabled Battlefield Decision Support	Dr Austin Wyatt (RAND)
1500	Interoperable protocols and architectures for distributed autonomous collaborative UAS swarming: where to from MAVLink?	Jonathan Dansie (Defence Science and Technology Group)
1520	3D Vision-Based Positioning for Autonomous Aerial Platform Navigation and Human-in-the-Loop Reconnaissance Missions	Peter Wilczynski (Vantor)
1540	Operational viability of artificial intelligence for real-time mine-like-object detection and geolocation	Tim Grabert (Nova Systems)
1600	Conference Close
1605	Conference Finish
1800 - 2000	Networking Event	Perth CBD

Event Sponsorship

AAUS has a number of sponsorship packages available for the Autonomy in the Joint Military Battlespace 2026 conference.

Sponsorship offers a high‑impact opportunity to showcase your organisation to key Defence personnel, industry, and academic stakeholders, enhance brand visibility, and build strategic partnerships through tailored packages that include speaking, branding, and exclusive delegate engagement.

Sponsorship Prospectus

AAUS gratefully acknowledges the support of our event sponsors.

Silver Sponsor