Indo Pacific 2025: Australia conducts maritime trials of OWL-B loitering munition

The OWL-B loitering munition, seen here at Indo Pacific 2025. (Janes/Ridzwan Rahmat)

Australia is conducting trials of the One Way Loitering (OWL)-B precision munition from the flight deck of MV Sycamore , a seagoing training vessel used by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to train its helicopter pilots.

If successfully certified, the trials could pave the way for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to deploy the loitering munition system from onboard its vessels. It will also mark the first known instance of the system being certified for launch from onboard a navy-operated vessel.

Speaking to Janes at the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition 2025 in Sydney, held from 4 to 6 November, Marcus Colman, CEO of Perth-based aeronautical engineering company Innovaero, described the trials from Sycamore as being part of a larger effort to establish a sovereign capability for loitering munitions in Australia.

These trials fall under the ambit of an Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA)-funded programme to certify and introduce into service a locally designed munition capable of precision strikes, Colman added.

The OWL-B is an Innovaero-developed, long-endurance, electric-powered loitering munition designed to deliver precision effects at extended ranges, and it is part of the company's series of OWL loitering munitions.

It has a wingspan of 1.85 m and a maximum range of about 100 km, assuming a 20 kt headwind in the journey towards its target.

Upon reaching the objective, the OWL-B can continue to loiter for about 30 minutes before kinetically striking the intended target with a built-in high-explosive warhead carried in the airframe's payload bay.