International Military Drone Racing Teams Converge on Sydney's Randwick Barracks

Drones are screaming through tight turns on a purpose-built open-air track at Randwick Barracks today, with teams from more than 10 nations locked in first-person-view combat on what Getty Images photographers captured as a penultimate day of high-intensity competition at the Military International Drone Racing Tournament.

The Australian Army Cadets delivered one of the tournament's early talking points, posting a second-place finish on the Day One qualifying leaderboard and sitting inside the top five overall. Competing alongside their Tri-Service partners from the Australian Air Force Cadets, the cadet contingent drew an immediate response from the Australian Army Drone Racing Team's official account: "#SendIt Cadets!!!"

That cadet pipeline has form. At last year's MIDRT in Lewis, New York, held at a repurposed ATLAS-F missile silo site, three Australian Army Cadet racers joined the ADF team and competed through to the finals despite having picked up a drone for the first time only at the start of 2024. Cadet Sergeant Angus Porter and Cadet Under Officer Zach Melvaine both finished inside the top four Australians at that event.

The ADF arrives in Sydney as defending champions. The Australian Army describes the team as "defending their sixth consecutive championship title," while reporting from the Lewis event in May 2025 recorded that victory as the ADF's fourth title, following wins in 2018, 2023 and 2024. Army team captain Corporal Dan McCullock spoke after that New York final, where the ADF edged out the United States in the final series. "It has been a fantastic week of racing, teamwork and excitement. To have the opportunity to be in the US to compete against the best military drone racing teams in the world is a huge thrill and then to win for the fourth time is really just amazing," McCullock said.

The Sydney edition carries additional ceremonial weight, staged as part of the 125th Australian Army Birthday celebrations. The MIDRT has toured Sandhurst, the Honourable Artillery Company Barracks in London, and the Avalon International Airshow in Geelong since the series launched at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, in 2018. Bringing the championship back to New South Wales puts the ADF on home soil for the first time since that inaugural edition.

Competition runs on the purpose-built open-air track at Randwick Barracks, with the Australian Army describing the format as "drone racing at full intensity, high speeds, tight turns, dramatic crashes and rapid repairs." Beyond the racing gates, interactive STEM displays are drawing crowds interested in drone engineering, unmanned aerial systems and pathways into defence aviation careers, a dimension the MIDRT organisation identifies as central to the tournament's mission alongside what it calls UAS and counter-UAS capability development between allied nations.

The official schedule places the final day on March 14, with competition running through to 4:00 pm. Full results from today's racing and tomorrow's finals will determine whether the ADF extends its championship run on home ground.