Major Richard Adams: New Zealand Army Lead on Uncrewed Aerial Systems on the Military International Drone Racing Tournament

The New Zealand Army is embracing the race to the latest drone technology. 

A tri-service team is being sent to the UK for the Military Drone Racing Tournament. 

It aims to develop the Defence Force’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities as drones become a key part of combat systems.  

Major Richard Adams, the NZ Army’s lead on Uncrewed Aerial Systems, told Mike Hosking that if you look at what’s happening in Ukraine at the moment, every six months looks completely different to the last, given the way this technology is changing. 

He says they’re looking to adapt as quickly as possible, so they have the most up to date equipment available to their people.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our military is after the UK to take part in
the Military Drone Racing tournament. It helps develop defense forces intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Has drones become a key part
of combat? Of course. Major Richard Adams is with our
Uncrude Aerial Systems team and he is with us Richard morning,
Good morning Mike. How long have you been in the military.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's a good question, mylon Zel, but different from most.
I've been in the Defense Force for the past fourteen months.
Prior to that, despite growingt and christ Churich, I spent
seven years in the British Army as well.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Oh, I see. The reason I asked that question is
this will have been something that if you've been there
long enough, you would never have seen. This is a
modern part of military, you know, thinking and activity that
you wouldn't have seen when you joined a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Absolutely so. I had my first exposure to this sort
of technology back in twenty eleven twenty twelve in Afghanistan.
And while it was very different back then, it looks
very different today than just fourteen years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And what's the pathway you reckon? You think if I
ring you in ten years time, exponentially, it will have
changed again.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, if you look at what's happening in Ukraine at
the moment, every six months looks completely different to the
past six months, given the way that this technology is changing,
which is why we're attempting to all while we're looking
to adapt as quickly as possible, so we have the
most upstate equipment available to our people.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
What's the advance? Is it distance? Is it accuracy? It's
is it payload or what.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's a little bit of everything, So it is accuracy.
So you look at the some of the work that
Ukraine did destroying very expensive Russian bombers one hundreds of
miles inside of Russia. It's payloads, so different sort of payloads,
whether it's for surveillance or whether it's for strike, so
for connectic activity, and it's also ways to overcome countermeasures.

(01:53):
So you know, again we'll here Ukraine that's spent a
lot of effort into doing fiber optic drone. So having
cables instead of using radio frequency is to ensure they
can't be jammed.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Interesting then, because it's it's it's the interface between I mean,
it's it's no one likes blowing stuff up and no
one likes war, but what the Ukrainians did to the
Russian Air Force was astonishing, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was spectacular, absolutely, But I think it's also it
also speaks to what they do on a day to
day basis in terms of the impact that they're having
with the sort of technology. So any on which figures
you look at. The estimates are that seventy percent of
casualties now in that conflict are caused by drones and
that's mainly through the odoral advances that have happened over
the last two or three years.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
So are we any good? I mean, when you go
into competition at this sort of thing in Britain, are
we good?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yes, we are. So we've had some success in the past.
It's something that we we're leaning into more now just
given the impact that sort of skill can have on
milk operations. But now we have a very very talented team.
So we've got a team of five that's head and across.
It's a tri service team from the Army and avan
Air Force and they're competing against or they're want of

(03:01):
fourteen nations that are competing at the tournament. So we're
expecting them to do rismly.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, good on you mate, We'll go well with it.
I appreciate your time and insight. Major Richard Adams, who's
New Zealand Army lead on this uncrued aerial systems team.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
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