Beyond the protests and police powers, what did we learn at Land Forces?

October 9, 2026 — 2:00am

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It required the biggest manned police operations in the state since the late Queen Elizabeth’s Perth visit in 2011, but inside the Land Forces Expo at the Perth Convention and Exposition Centre this week, most exhibitors were spruiking how they could remove people from modern battlefields.

The most eye-catching of the nearly 1000 displays at the controversial event were the metal giants like the Australian Army’s imposing 40 tonne Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle or Thales’ Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle.

Nestled between those armoured beasts were models of some of the world’s deadliest ordinance from defence giants like Lockheed Martin and Rafael Advanced Systems, but you couldn’t walk five metres without overhearing someone mutter something about drones, autonomy or AI.

The push to equip armies with drones has been accelerated by the war in Ukraine and recognised by the Australian Army which plans to spend more than $20 billion on drones and counter drones over the next decade.

“People in Ukraine talk about this, and people observing Ukraine talk about this but, in the context of one conflict, one war, I don’t think we have seen such a dramatic shifting in what it actually looks like,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said during a fireside chat with Chief of Army Lieutenant General Susan Coyle in Perth on Wednesday.

“What is going on in Ukraine today relative........

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