31 July 2025
The 1st Armoured Regiment (1AR) has transformed this year to provide the Australian Army with a Combat Experimentation Group, designed to test and trial emerging technology to gain battlefield advantage.
During Exercise Talisman Sabre, B Squadron from 1AR travelled from Adelaide to Townsville to test the Modular Robotic Vehicle (MRV) with remote weapon stations, and first-person view drones (FPVD), for the first time in a combat field environment.
The MRV currently uses an M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier as a ‘test bed’, with 50-calibre machine guns or M23D minigun remote weapon stations attached. This technology allows soldiers to control the vehicle and weapon station using a remote control from up to 1000 metres away.
Similarly, FPVD are operated using a headset and hand controller.
Officer Commanding Major Tom Fisher said these drones could travel up to 20 kilometres from the operator, reaching speeds of up to 70km/h with the ability to provide a strike function when weaponised with a payload.
“It allows the warfighter to strike targets at range without placing themselves at risk,” Major Fisher said.
Embedding within the 3rd Brigade’s Battlegroup Kapyong, the 1AR team and their new equipment were tested in a range of tactical scenarios, providing commanders with new opportunities on the battlefield.
“Being able to implement the MRV and FPVD into a battlegroup, conducting tactical actions and seeing how other people would utilise the equipment is really exciting,” Major Fisher said.
“The capability is quite early on, but looking to the future, this kind of capability can bring a heavy amount of firepower to bear without putting soldiers in harm's way, which is really promising.”
'Here we’ve been able to test how we fight with that technology which essentially reduces the risk to people.'
Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion and Battlegroup Kapyong, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Ellis, said testing the new technology was an opportunity to employ new tactics and enhance his soldiers’ survivability.
“Here we’ve been able to test how we fight with that technology which essentially reduces the risk to people,” Lieutenant Colonel Ellis said.
“We don’t have to put our soldiers in harm’s way and it can also be employed to soak up the attention of the enemy while our people move forward.”
When new technology is delivered by Army Headquarters through the Army accelerated capability pipeline, 1AR conducts initial training and testing in Cultana Training Area, South Australia.
Major Fisher said the humid and undulating terrain of Townsville Field Training Area was in stark contrast to the dry plains of Cultana, which allowed his team to challenge the technology and push it to its limits.
“Because of the way the vehicles communicate to each other, performance is very terrain dependent, so we are experiencing some difficulties with terrain in Townsville that is quite vegetated,” he said.
“However, as with all experimentation, even if you have a failure, it's still a win, because you know the limitations of the equipment.”
Members of the regiment also deployed to Shoalwater Bay Training Area during Exercise Talisman Sabre to test uncrewed ground vehicles and hyper teaming drones.
On return to Adelaide, 1AR will evaluate how the equipment performed and whether it will progress to implementation across wider Army.
