Australia needs a dedicated aerospace testing range, and it should be in the Northern Territory.
Developing aircraft, missiles and their equipment, and verifying new capabilities added to them, requires real-world testing in large airspaces equipped for the purpose.
Australia’s defence and aerospace industry is growing rapidly. From hypersonic flight and autonomous systems to high-altitude platforms and next-generation drones, local firms are pushing into frontiers that demand real-world testing. This requires not just airspaces, but safety corridors and infrastructure that can capture and evaluate in real-time the performance of systems under test.
Today, companies must either rely on fragmented Defence facilities—often designed for operational training rather than developmental testing—or go overseas, where access is uncertain, costly and subject to foreign export controls.
Many readers will immediately think of the Royal Australian Air Force’s Woomera range as Australia’s premier aerospace testing site. Indeed, the Royal Air Force and BAE Systems tested Britain’s Taranis strike-aircraft demonstrator there, and the performance of Boeing’s Ghost Bat loyal wingman has also been verified on its vast instrumented ranges.
But while the Woomera range remains a unique national asset, it was never designed for the rapid, commercially driven pace of modern aerospace innovation. As a Defence-controlled facility, access for private firms is constrained by complex security protocols, long lead times and limited scheduling flexibility. Its instrumentation is optimised for weapons trials, not iterative flight development, and data rights are tightly controlled. Logistically, Woomera’s remoteness and limited local infrastructure add further barriers to frequent commercial use.
In short, it is a superb sovereign range for classified military testing—but poorly suited to the needs of an emerging aerospace and space industry that requires responsive, digitally enabled, and commercially accessible test environments.
A dedicated national aerospace testing range would fill this gap. It’d provide industry with an instrumented environment to trial high-end aerospace systems at scale, while giving Defence a window into emerging capabilities. It’d also serve as a magnet for foreign firms seeking neutral, well-regulated test areas in the Indo-Pacific. Countries like the United States and Britain already operate such ranges, but in Australia, the opportunity is still latent. The Northern Territory, with its unique geography, robust infrastructure, and strategic location, is the logical place to establish it.
The vast, sparsely populated extent of the Northern Territory and its low-density airspace allow for large safety buffers, which are essential for high-risk testing. Unlike the congested skies of the southern capitals, the Northern Territory offers uncluttered corridors where prototypes can be flown, tracked, and recovered with minimal disruption to civilians.
Proximity to northern operational areas and allied training exercises is the second great advantage. Darwin, RAAF Tindal and the Delamere air weapons range already anchor Australia’s northern force posture and are well integrated into US and allied activities. Locating a national aerospace testing range in the Northern Territory would leverage existing Defence infrastructure.
The Delamere range itself provides a strong foundation. Already regarded as one of the world’s best live-fire ranges, it is equipped with radar tracking, real-time scoring and electronic warfare emitters that simulate adversary environments. With investment, these capabilities could be adapted to support aerospace testing, providing researchers and engineers with data-rich feedback loops. Coupled with new digital infrastructure, high-speed fibre, resilient satellite links and advanced telemetry, the Northern Territory could offer a test range capable of evaluating a range of systems.
Establishing a national aerospace test range would not be very costly. The initial investment would likely run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, covering land access agreements, airspace regulation, range instrumentation, telemetry systems, safety infrastructure and workforce. But the outlay should be seen in context. Billions will flow into AUKUS-related projects, advanced guided weapons programs, and next-generation aerospace systems. A fraction of that sum spent on an Australian testing range would unlock efficiencies across all of these programs by reducing reliance on foreign facilities and shortening development cycles.
A challenge would be ensuring industry use of the facility. That would require predictable access and competitive pricing. Defence would need to establish clear frameworks guaranteeing that industry could book range time without being bumped by military priorities. That would mean moving beyond Defence-centric models of range management towards a more hybrid model that balances civil and military uses. On pricing, costs must be set to encourage start-ups and small and medium enterprises to participate, potentially through subsidies or credits linked to innovation grants. A range reserved only for primes might stifle the very ecosystem it’s meant to enable.
Attracting international industry is equally important. The Northern Territory’s location makes it attractive to companies in Asia, Europe and North America seeking access to Indo-Pacific testing grounds. But to compete globally, the range must offer gold-standard data security, regulatory certainty, and technical capability. That would mean cyber-hardened systems, internationally recognised safety protocols and a governance framework that gave foreign firms confidence that their intellectual property was protected. Done right, the range could generate foreign investment while deepening Australia’s integration into allied technology ecosystems.
The benefits would be transformative. For Defence, a national aerospace testing range would accelerate Australian capabilities in long-range strike, hypersonics and autonomous systems. For industry, it would provide a pathway from prototype to production without leaving Australian soil. For the Northern Territory, it would generate high-value jobs and dual-use digital infrastructure. And for Australia’s allies, it would provide a trusted partner capable of hosting joint trials and accelerating collective innovation.
Without a more accessible sovereign aerospace testing range, Australian firms risk continued dependence on foreign facilities for certain classes of trials—particularly those involving high-speed flight, re-entry systems, or advanced propulsion. While some flagship programs, such as the Ghost Bat, have been successfully flight-tested in Australia, most emerging aerospace ventures still face gaps in range availability, scheduling flexibility and instrumentation suited to iterative commercial development. This dependence exposes companies to potential delays, higher costs and restrictions tied to foreign export controls, and limits Australia’s ability to fully integrate testing into its industrial innovation cycle. Meanwhile, competitor nations are embedding dual-use test facilities into their industrial ecosystems, accelerating capability development and strengthening strategic autonomy.