Defence Trailblazer has seen a strong start to 2025, with 35 industry-led projects contracted to fast-track the translation of defence research & development (R&D) activities, and 19 further projects in the pipeline. The projects involve 26 different industry partners and represent $135M of R&D activities aligned to Australian Defence requirements in areas of strategic priority.
Akula Tech and UNSW are developing a novel framework for deploying heterogeneous drone swarms, supported by funding from Defence Trailblazer. The project aims to enhance defence capabilities by allowing autonomous swarms to respond adaptively to battlefield conditions.
Praetorian Aeronautics is partnering with the University of Adelaide on a Defence Trailblazer-funded project, HADRIAN, an advanced AI-enhanced system designed to revolutionise command and control for autonomous defence platforms.
Through the Defence Trailblazer program, Acacia Systems and the University of Adelaide have signed a research project agreement for agroundbreaking project aimed at enhancing Biologically Inspired Vision (BIV) technology to automatically detect drones from moving vehicles.