AUKUS pressure points and DroneShield developments

In this News Review episode, Grant McHerron, Ewen Levick, Nigel Pittaway and Kirra Davey discuss a few recent news items of interest.

We open with the news that DroneShield are working with AIM Defence to include their Fractl laser based C-UAS product in DroneShield's ecosystem of detectors, jammers and C2 products. We also note their DroneSentry-X Mk2 product is being used in the USA. The discussion then moves on to news relating to AUKUS, including the US GAO's report showing that, to the end of 2025, US nuclear submarines had a very large number of "inactive" days across the fleet, either waiting for maintenance or waiting to be decommissioned, during which time they were required to be crewed while tied up at a pier.

On further AUKUS news, we also look at the UK government delaying their purchase of new attack submarines plus the indication that design work is only half way completed, which tends to cast doubt on a previous statement a few years ago from our Navy that the design was 70% complete. We also discuss a UK report on issues with production of the nuclear reactors required for the Dreadnaught and SSN AUKUS submarines, which could further delay SSN AUKUS production for Australia. Both the US and UK reports highlight the need for government watchdogs to be able to publically identify issues and hold governments and militaries to task about their ability to deliver on major projects.

We wrap with feedback from our previous News Review episode which confirmed that the StrikeMaster vehicle used in the NATO exercise had a right hand drive configuration.

Links:

DroneShield:

https://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/news/droneshield-expands-open-counter-drone-architecture

https://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/news/us-accepts-droneshield-dronesentry-x-mk2-on-isvs

AUKUS

https://news.usni.org/2026/09/01/gao-report-on-attack-submarine-maintenance-challenges

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/12/labour-delays-buying-new-attack-submarines/

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