Australia has gifted Sri Lankan police five drones to monitor people smuggling between the two countries. It is part of a wider project to help Sri Lanka establish a “drone surveillance capability” that will also conduct natural disaster scene assessments and recovery and transnational crime investigations. Operation Sovereign Borders is a military border security operation located primarily within the Department of Home Affairs but supported by a range of federal government agencies. In February, Australian Aviation reported how a RAN robotics team developed a drone prototype that can be autonomously dispatched to record critical incidents and beam the footage back to the ship. The land-based prototype is made from plywood and fibre-glass and propelled by a 3D-printed water-cooled brushless motor, made at the Centre for Innovation at Fleet Base East.

Source: The Nation April 14, 2021 15:33 UTC