COL Jake Penley

COL Jake Penley

Director Robotics and Autonomous Systems Australian Army
COL Jake Penley

NextGen Flight: UAV & Drone Summit ANZ

9:10 Panel Discussion: Strategy, Scale & Sovereignty – Building ANZ’s UAV Leadership

  • Hearing from leaders across defence, emergency, and industry on what’s driving UAV adoption right now.
  • Scaling operations from trials to enterprise-level and mission-ready deployments.
  • Overcoming barriers in regulation, integration, and workforce readiness that slow capability growth.
  • Aligning priorities across sectors to strengthen sovereign capability and shared infrastructure.

16:30 Panel Discussion & Leadership Dialogue: AI, Autonomy & the Flight Path to 2030

A forward-looking discussion bringing defence, industry, and public safety leaders together to align emerging technologies with the strategic, regulatory, and capability decisions shaping the next decade of UAV adoption in ANZ.

  • Setting priorities for AI, autonomy, and emerging technologies within national capability and policy frameworks.
  • Unlocking scale by addressing the roadblocks to integration, workforce readiness, and operational trust.
  • Accelerating adoption through stronger collaboration between defence, industry, and public safety ecosystems.
  • Balancing innovation and assurance by embedding safety, governance, and human oversight as autonomy advances.

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Jake.

Download The Latest Agenda