ADSTAR Summit series: RAAF’s Ross Rice on getting technology into the fight faster

Group Captain Ross Rice heads the Rapid Capability Office under Plan Jericho, the Royal Australian Air Force's effort to integrate technology and innovation, and to get new capabilities into the hands of its people quickly. He joins STW at the ADSTAR Summit, where we were hosted by the Defence Science and Technology Group.Ross draws lessons from Ukraine—including brilliant operations such as Operation Spiderweb—on what drones have done to the battlefield and how uncrewed doctrine is evolving, from the risk calculations militaries can now make through to the question of where humans sit in the loop. He is thoughtful on automation and the laws of armed conflict, on trust in the technology, on the role of AI in making sense of the flood of data coming off modern sensors, and on how to avoid a race to the ethical bottom—a subject on which he has a nice quote from history.The conversation also covers continuous modernisation and how industry is adapting. Ross describes innovation running in both directions between Defence and industry, driven by military need and by ideas emerging from the private sector. And he closes on the idea of sovereign industry as a key part of Australia’s strategic depth.