<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Most of the Australian </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/military" rel="" target="_blank" title="military's"><span>military's</span></a><span> most expensive planes, ships and submarines are vulnerable to the simplest of drone attacks, according to experts who say the Defence Force must quickly adapt to the changing dynamics of conflict.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Australia's multi-billion-dollar fleet of F-35s is protected by little more than sun shades and the RAAF's bigger aircraft, including C-17 Globemasters and KC-30 refuellers, are out in the open on the tarmac at Amberley air base in Queensland.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Potential adversaries don't have to go any further than Google Maps to see the Australian Defence Force's multiple vulnerabilities.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/visas-australia-south-korean-family-in-melbourne-facing-deportation-over-document-error-plea-to-immigration-minister/fbe7e793-9a9f-4a63-a16a-ed0accae724e" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Melbourne family face being deported to South Korea over 'misunderstanding'</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Unfortunately, Google Maps shows almost everything," says Marc Ablong, senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"You can see the base infrastructure, people on the base, where the guard posts are. You can determine access points, weak points in fence lines. Many of those things are now readily apparent just by studying the mapping capabilities that exist through things like Google Maps."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ablong said the ADF needed to significantly upgrade its passive protection of its bases and military kit, with hardened structures, concrete revetments and reinforced bunkers or dugouts.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/australian-military-vulnerable-to-drone-attacks-warns-defence-experts/e1abd96c-7c19-4311-ad8b-2c28d5ed96b5" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said the ADF also needed to fasten delivery of an anti-drone capability to provide active protection of assets.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Defence strategist David Kilcullen said the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/russia-ukraine-war-ukraine-drone-strikes-1300km-inside-russian-territory/dcaf36f6-ad7a-4749-907f-a20505ae4bc9" rel="" target="_blank" title="use of drones"><span>use of drones</span></a><span> in the Middle East and European conflicts showed the devastating effect on modern hybrid warfare.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is incredibly easy to track the assets of a nation that thinks it's at peace," Kilcullen says.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"A determined state adversary is more than capable of identifying and then targeting these kinds of critical infrastructure using what some people call unconventional strategic strike, the use of special forces drones, infiltrating supply chains and so on."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ukraine used drones smuggled into Russia on trucks to destroy billions of dollars worth of aircraft on four separate airfields, including as much as a third of Russia's strategic bomber fleet.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Operation Spiderweb's extraordinary success last month prompted Moscow to order shelters for its remaining bombers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/driver-appeals-sentence-over-deadly-wedding-bus-crash/98411185-3e7c-43e2-91e2-22e3b5a43183"><strong><span>Driver appeals sentence over deadly wedding bus crash</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Similarly, Israel used drones to destroy some of Iran's ageing fleet of F-14 jet fighters.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Ukraine and Israel have demonstrated that a drone that costs less than $1000 can wreak billions of dollars worth of damage across an airfield," Ablong said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Taiwan, which is under constant Chinese challenge, keeps its F-16s under concrete bunkers. Norway does the same with its F-35s.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>China has constructed an underground base for its submarines on the island of Hainan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>By comparison, Australia keeps a squadron of F-35s at Tindal air base in the Northern Territory under corrugated tin roofs and the nation's entire submarine hunter P-8 Poseidon collection is lined up on the tarmac at Edinburgh RAAF base in Adelaide.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It would be like owning a Ferrari or a Lamborghini and then leaving it on the street outside of your house with the key still in the ignition," Ablong said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said Australia could no longer assume its remoteness made it safer.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/potential-superannuation-crisis-looming-sole-traders-entrepreneurs/f9b13126-16b9-47cc-a151-d43fa23b1844"><strong><span>Retirement crisis coming for millions of Aussies</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Distance is not a meaningful discriminator anymore. Some of the drone attacks that the Ukrainians undertook travelled more than 4000 miles, which is the distance between Sydney and Perth," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Defence Force said the protection of critical assets was a "priority area for work and investment" and that it was continually revising force protection and resilience measures for its personnel, bases, critical infrastructure and capability assets.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Defence is observing conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, including the evolution of asymmetric capabilities, and applying lessons to Australia's geographic and strategic circumstances," the department said in a statement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Defence said it was "actively investing in Counter-small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (CsUAS)", which would detect, identify and potentially neutralise hostile drones.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A tender process for the so-called LAND 156 project is underway, Defence said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>American tech company Anduril is also running an anti-drone trial at RAAF Base Darwin.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Under the current timeline, Defence's anti-drone program is not expected to be fully operational until 2032.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><strong><span>Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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