Staff reporter

Assistant Minister for Defence Peter Khalil will oversee the new body alongside NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe, with an initial focus on affected sites in NSW.

With more than 500 participants across both air forces, the exercise – now in its 15th year – will run until 19 September, building upon the defence partnership established between Australia and Thailand in 1992.

Chaired by Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, the meeting reviewed progress on a remediation plan developed to address long-running delays and performance issues with the multibillion-dollar project. The summit follows the previous gathering in November 2024.

The RAAF-defined demonstrations required the MQ-28 to execute a series of operationally relevant missions designed to supplement and enhance capabilities of existing crewed platforms.

The Alauda Aeronautics Mk4 has been given CASA approval, with Airspeeder hailing it as the “world’s first experimental flight certification for a racing eVTOL”. Described as a “next-generation racecraft”, the Mk4 is set to be unveiled later this year.

Marines assigned to Marine Wing Support Squadron 174, Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing joined forces with the Air Force, Air Force Reserves, Air National Guard and Royal Australian Air Force for the two-week training event on the island of Oahu.