The Federal Opposition has confirmed that it intends to acquire three new Global Hawk surveillance drones to watch over Australia’s borders if elected on 21 August.
The acquisition of the unmanned aircraft, each valued at more than $100 million, was the one major new equipment purchase in the Coalition’s defence policy issued by defence spokesman David Johnston in the week before the election.
Australia had considered acquiring a number of Global Hawk aircraft for maritime and land surveillance, in which event the Global Hawk aircraft would have been operated in conjunction with manned P-8A Poseidon aircraft by 10 and 11 Squadrons of the RAAF.
This combination, or a similar one, would replace existing AP-3C Orion aircraft in 2018.
However, due to the economic situation, the Labor government cancelled the procurement.